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CNSNews.com) - At fundraiser dinner at the Hollywood home of actor George Clooney on Thursday night, President Barack Obama joked that he and the actor were “Dope and Hope.” “It was wonderful,” Obama said, “walking through the house, and the famous ‘Hope’ poster from the 2008 campaign--people don't realize that the photograph of me is actually me sitting next to George, because George had come into D.C. to advocate on behalf of Darfur and to make sure that we were doing the right thing for so many people who were going through such horrific events, and we struck up a...

Obama: George Clooney and Me Are ‘Dope and Hope’ By CNSNews.com Staff May 11, 2012 (CNSNews.com) - At fundraiser dinner at the Hollywood home of actor George Clooney on Thursday night, President Barack Obama joked that he and the actor were “Dope and Hope.” “It was wonderful,” Obama said, “walking through the house, and the famous ‘Hope’ poster from the 2008 campaign--people don't realize that the photograph of me is actually me sitting next to George, because George had come into D.C. to advocate on behalf of Darfur and to make sure that we were doing the right thing for...

It started last summer, when it seemed that Mexican President Felipe Calderón had understandably reached the end of his rope. After 52 innocent people were massacred in August by drug gangsters who set fire to a Monterrey casino – 52 added to the almost 50,000 drug-related murders in Mexico since 2006 – an angry Calderón said that if Americans were so “determined and resigned to consume drugs, then they should seek market alternatives in order to cancel the stratospheric profits” fueling the ghastly narco-bloodshed. Everyone agreed that by “market alternatives,” Calderón meant some sort of drug legalization.

This is the html version of the file http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/statement-Congress-letterhead-2nd%20hearing.pdf. Page 1 Leader Pelosi, Members of Congress, good morning, and thank you for calling this hearing on women’s health and allowing me to testify on behalf of the women who will benefit from the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage regulation. Myname is Sandra Fluke, and I’m a third year student at Georgetown Law, a Jesuit school. I’m also a past president of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice or LSRJ. I’d like to acknowledge my fellow LSRJ members and allies and all of the student activists with us and thank them...

The first primaries of 2012 are complete, but the fight over the proper role of government continues. The question before GOP primary voters is who best reflects their own answer to that question, and then, who is best suited to make that case to the American people? A clear winner has yet to emerge, but there is little question about who has captured the loyalty of young Republican voters on this issue. Although finishing fourth overall, Ron Paul once again won the youth vote in South Carolina, winning 31% of ages 18-29, compared to Newt Gingrich who won 28%. Paul’s...

CARSON CITY — Synthetic drugs that mirror cocaine and marijuana are showing up more often in Nevada, and some state legislators are unhappy that the state Pharmacy Board has not taken action to ban them. Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, chairwoman of the Legislative Committee on Health Care, said it’s been almost a year since the 2011 Legislature discussed the problem and she is frustrated the Pharmacy Board had not adopted a regulation to prohibit the “synthetic cannabinoids and bath salts.”

Brain abnormalities that make teenagers more likely to smoke cannabis have been identified for the first time by Australian scientists. Their study of more than 100 Melbourne teens also confirmed that cannabis harms the brain, adding weight to a raft of previous research on damage caused by long-term use of the drug. Researchers from Monash and Melbourne universities took high-tech images of the brains of 155 primary school students when they were 12. Four years later when they reached their milestone 16th birthday, the students were asked whether they had used cannabis. Of 121 who responded, 28 admitted to using...

Users of medical marijuana have been exempted from a smoking ban that Sebastopol has imposed on apartment dwellers. The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an amendment to its July anti-smoking ordinance that removes medical marijuana from the definition of smoking. The anti-smoking ordinance, aimed at second-hand smoke, requires apartment owners to write no-smoking restrictions into all new leases and imposes a smoking ban on other renters within 14 months. A similar ban for apartment dwellers has been enacted by Sonoma County supervisors and proposed for Santa Rosa. Sebastopol already prohibits smoking in work places, bars and restaurants, retail stores...

At a campaign stop in Urbandale, Iowa, Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said he supports letting states establish their own laws regarding medical marijuana. "If states want to legalize medical marijuana, I think that's a state's right," Cain said, according to NBC News. "Because one of my overriding approaches to looking at all of these issue --most of them belong at the state, because when you do something federally . . . you try to force one-size-fits-all." The federal government restricts consumption of marijuana under current law, but 16 states and the District of Columbia have passed measures to...

<p>Several employees at a plant in Detroit called Tower Defense and Aerospace were caught drinking booze and smoking marijuana during their afternoon break for lunch.</p> <p>Tower Defense and Aerospace makes armored parts for U.S. military trucks and planes. According to the WJBK-TV report the plant makes "parts for Humvees and Stryker combat vehicles destined for Afgahnistan and Iraq.</p>

When it comes to the subject of marijuana, Barack Obama appears to talk out of both sides of his mouth. As a candidate, Obama intimated that he would respect state laws regarding medicinal marijuana and would not prosecute medicinal marijuana sales and use in states where it is legal. “It’s not a good use of our resources,” he said at the time. When Obama took office, the Justice Department released a memo that seemed to confirm that position. But in the years since Obama’s inauguration, his administration has shifted course. Now, Attorney General Eric Holder is vigorously prosecuting medicinal marijuana...

The Obama administration’s statewide crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries has landed a one-two punch in Marin County.The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, the state’s oldest dispensary, has posted a sign at its 6 School St. storefront office in Fairfax announcing that the dispensary will shut down at 9 p.m. Dec. 17. And Medi-Cone, a medical marijiuana collective that was cultivating, harvesting and packaging medical marijuana for several Bay Area dispensaries in West Marin, ceased operations this week due to increased scrutiny by authorities.Lynnette Shaw, the Alliance’s founder and operator, declined to comment on the advice of her attorney, Richard Halstead...

Ron Paul: Legalizing Marijuana Is a State's Constitutional Right Ron Paul recently told all 23 members of Air America's listening audience that he is strongly in support of state sovereignty concerning the legalization of the sticky icky pot weed… He said that he believes that the U.S. Constitution gives the fifty states the right to legalize hemp production or marijuana. He said the issue was a matter of personal liberty but added that drug users should not be entitled to government-funded treatment if they abuse legalized drugs. Not in a free market America, they shouldn't. That would make them...

Question: Which president's administration has done more to attack legal medicinal marijuana? The EVIL George Bush or the Beloved Barack Obama? Guess what? Even though the Bush Administration wasn't too keen on legalized medicinal marijuana, they pretty much left it alone. Meanwhile the Obama Regime is actively attempting to drive the current medical marijuana dispensaries OUT of business via the IRS declaring that such businesses can NOT declare deductions for their business expenses. This means if such a dispensary has a gross income of a million dollars and expenses of $900,000 they would be taxed on the full million,...

As the above poster notes, Big-Government is a joke. The bureaucracy and its pet processes have expanded to the point government has become mostly incompetent (except the military, which has a clear and unwavering command structure that keeps individuals from diluting the purpose and focus of the overall group). Big-Government incompetence is everywhere – and was the root cause of the economic implosion we experienced in 2008. Housing values, 401k’s and many other repositories of a life time of work and saving were wiped out by liberal nonsense. When Democrats Dodd & Frank used Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Federal authorities in California vowed to shut down dozens of pot growing and sales operations in a major crackdown, saying the worst offenders are using the cover of medical marijuana to act as storefront drug dealers. The aggressive crackdown comes a little more than two months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana. Prosecutors Friday described it as the first coordinated statewide offensive against marijuana dealers and suppliers who use California’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law as legal cover for running sophisticated drug trafficking ventures in plain sight.

The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second. Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars. Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- People Arrested for Drug Law Offenses this Year Arrests for drug law violations this year are expected to exceed the 1,663,582 arrests of 2009. Law enforcement made more arrests for drug abuse violations (an estimated 1.6 million arrests, or 13.0 percent of the...

Spilled marijuana scooped up by bystanders after truck crashesSeptember 1, 2011 | 2:06 pm A truck carrying big bags of marijuana crashed in San Jose, allowing passing motorists and pedestrians to snatch up free pot. The San Jose Mercury News reported that bags of marijuana were strewn about an intersection after the truck crashed Wednesday near Oakridge Mall. The truck driver fled, and several motorists grabbed most of the pot before police arrived at the scene. "Officers eventually collected the remaining bags of weed left at the scene and also found a loaded handgun inside the white truck," the newspaper...

Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich is making yet another trip to the left coast over the weekend - this time to be a headline speaker at Seattle's "Hempfest," which advertises itself as "The World's Largest Protestival." Kucinich is scheduled to address the event on Saturday afternoon, right after Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. Other luminaries slated to address the three day gathering at Seattle's Myrtle Edwards Park include Wayward Bill of the United States Marijuana Party, representatives of "Moms for Marijuana" and "Gramma's for Ganja," as well as someone from High Times Magazine who goes by the name "Stinkbud." According to...

Leadership: If the president meant to calm the markets on Monday, he failed utterly — and no wonder. All he did was make it clear he's completely out of ideas on how to get the economy moving again. After his televised remarks, the Dow industrial average continued to fall, finishing 5.5% lower. The Nasdaq plummeted 6.9%. Why should it have been any different? In his brief statement, the only thing President Obama demonstrated was a cluelessness about the country's current mess — of which the debt downgrade is just the latest example — and an even weaker grasp on how...

Congressmen Ron Paul, Barney Frank and others will introduce legislature Thursday that aims to end a major part of the war on drugs -- namely the battle against marijuana. Reps. Paul (R-Texas) and Frank (D-Mass.), though technically on opposite sides of the aisle, have often spoken out against the war on drugs and will propose a bill "tomorrow ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference," according to a statement from the Marijuana Policy Project via Reason. The bill would allow the individual states to decide how they want to...

Three upstanding citizens currently making the Dakota County Jail their home. Get Out Of My Country! Close the damn borders! Donate to Free Republic!

It’s likely that Robert Watson, the minority leader of the Rhode Island House, is now regretting his incendiary comments during a speech to the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce last February. Watson caused a commotion when he made clear his feelings that Rhode Island lawmakers were wasting their time debating marijuana decriminalization. According to Watson, making pot decrim a priority would be a good idea “if you are a Guatemalan gay man who likes to gamble and smokes marijuana.” Watson’s hypocrisy was revealed this week after he was stopped at a police checkpoint Friday and charged with – what else?...

Farmington, Conn. (WTNH) - A Farmington man is under arrest after he called 911 and asked the dispatcher how much trouble he could get into for growing marijuana. Police say Robert J. Michelson called 911 Thursday evening around 8pm. Dispatcher: 911, what's your emergency? Michelson: Uh, let's not get into that yet. Dispatcher: If it's not an emergency you don't call 911 sir.Michelson: Well, I have a legal question. Dispatcher: Is it life threatening or an active crime in progress? Michelson: Crime in progress possibly. Dispatcher: What's going on? Michelson: I was just growing some marijuana and I was just...

A longtime friend of Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in custody following the murder of six people in an apparent assassination attempt on Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said there was a mysterious, significant change in him a year before the shooting. More Video 1 2 3 4 PreviousNext VIDEO: A total of 19 people were wounded by gunman Jared Lee Loughner's attack. Watch: Tragedy in Arizona: Timeline of Rampage VIDEO: Dr. Steven Rayle and Ken Penner describe the scene at the Safeway supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. Watch: Eyewitness Accounts of Arizona Shooting VIDEO: Tilman Fertitta talks about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords'...

Heightened and "vitriolic" political rhetoric is being blamed by some for the kind of violence that landed Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in intensive care following a mass casualty shooting on Saturday, but others say a blame game is hardly appropriate or useful right now.

Police say that they were patrolling on Fabers Road today when they conducted a search on a sewer waste site in the Dykes area. This led to the discovery of two sacks of cannabis; the sacks contained many smaller parcels of cannabis that had been neatly packed in black plastic bags. Police say that the total amount of the find is estimated to be 27 ¼ pounds, for a street value of $10,000. Police say that they also conducted a search on an abandoned lot in Hattieville yesterday. This search led to the discovery of an AK-47 rifle with a...

WELLINGTON (AFP) – Police in New Zealand burning off seized cannabis were left red-faced when a change in the wind sent smoke billowing over a primary school, it was reported Tuesday. Officers in the South Island town of Picton were destroying cannabis and shredded paper in an incinerator at the local police station when the incident occurred, the Marlborough Express newspaper reported. It said St Joseph's School principal Peter Knowles noticed the smoke on Friday morning and complained to police, who immediately extinguished the fire.

CINCINNATI -- A grand jury indicted a Springfield Township woman accused of giving marijuana to her toddler daughter and videotaping it, and prosecutors said it likely was not the first time. "It is disturbing to think that a parent would provide their 2-year-old child with marijuana," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters. "It is beyond disturbing when you watch the video and see a baby easily manipulating a marijuana joint and realize that she has probably done this on more than one occasion." Jessica Gamble, 21, was indicted Wednesday on one count each of corrupting another with drugs, child endangering...

LOS ANGELES – Mexican-American actor Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin is slamming the Arizona immigration law as little more than an attempt to hold on to “white culture.” “It’s ridiculous; it’s the last gasp of white culture,” he told Pop Tarts at the Los Angeles launch last week of Disney Pixar's online "World of Cars." “Reactionaries and Congress (are to blame) only because they think that's the way of getting votes. We'll stir up the rabble! If you take the Mexicans out of Arizona, Arizona is going to collapse the next day.” But it’s not only the immigration law with which...

A new article profiling Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul's college days alleges that Paul and a friend once kidnapped a classmate and tried to force her to smoke marijuana. The GQ Magazine article, written by Jason Zengerle, contends that Paul has cast himself as an outsider since his days at Baylor University in Texas, joining a "secret society" called the NoZe Brotherhood. The society was "a refuge for atypical Baylor students" and enjoyed needling the school's administration and its piousness, according to Zengerle. The author relates an anecdote about Paul and another alleged member of the NoZe Brotherhood, shared...

WASHINGTON – Patients treated at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics will be able to use medical marijuana in the 14 states where it's legal, according to new federal guidelines. The directive from the Veterans Affairs Department in the coming week is intended to clarify current policy that says veterans can be denied pain medication if they use illegal drugs. Veterans groups have complained for years that this could bar veterans from VA benefits if they were caught using medical marijuana. The new guidance does not authorize VA doctors to begin prescribing medical marijuana, which is considered an illegal drug...

IN 1971 a group of teenagers in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, started meeting after school, at 4:20PM, to get high. The habit spread, and 420 became code for fun time among potheads worldwide. Ever since, California has remained in the vanguard of global cannabis culture. Oaksterdam University in Oakland is today unique in the world as a sort of Aristotelian lyceum for the study of all aspects—horticultural, scientific, historical—of the weed. Legally, California has also been a pioneer, at least within America. In 1996 it was the first state to allow marijuana to be grown and consumed for...

Three Philadelphia police officers have been charged with planning the theft of 300 grams of heroin from an alleged drug supplier and then selling it to another person they believed to be a drug dealer and money launderer who, in actuality, was a DEA special agent. "I'm personally pissed off about this kind of behavior," Mayor Nutter said at a news conference at police headquarters this afternoon. "We do not employ criminals. That's what they are. That's how they will be treated." Robert Snyder, 30, of the 25th Police District; Mark Williams, 27, and James Venziale, 32, both of the...

To quote the great Dennis Miller, "now, I don't want to get off on a rant here..." but while I may get a big kick out of calling the guy President Amateur Hur, and its one of those "haha, but not really" types of jokes, I'm starting to get worried. Obama is starting to make George W. Bush look like James Bond. Worse yet, I'm starting to think I can be president. Since when do leadership skills matter anyway? All you have to have is a pulse and proof of citizenship and you're all set! I don't blame him...

After two decades of carefully tending his businesses, Dunn is making the most radical leap of his career. He's moving back to America. Going home was once unimaginable. "The thing about America was they still had a very, very negative idea of cannabis," Dunn recalled during an interview this spring. "I was in a sort of dream world over here."

Breaking ranks with hard-line conservatives, Palin calls marijuana use by adults a "minimal problem" — but is she just expediently provoking debate? In an appearance on Fox Business Channel this week, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin expressed a somewhat lenient view on the enforcement of marijuana laws. "I'm not for the legalization of pot," said Palin. But "if somebody's going to smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at...." This stance lets Palin undermine the "media's caricature of her as some fire-breathing neo-con," says...

Marijuana is causing America to be more and more dysfunctional. Its time we recognize that we have a problem. Educational info on marijuana

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- As Bob Marley music wailed in the next room, the makeshift clinic hummed along like an assembly line: Patients went in to see a doctor, paid $150 and walked out with a recommendation that they be allowed to buy and smoke medical marijuana. So it went, all day, at a hotel just blocks from the state Capitol that was the latest stop of the so-called cannabis caravan, a band of doctors and medical marijuana advocates roaming Montana that has helped thousands of patients apply for medical marijuana cards from the state.

MISSION — The police didn’t find any ice cream in the van — only a box full of pot. Mission police narcotics investigators arrested Adan Toca, 34, outside the Mission Post Office, 901 N. Francisco Ave., about 3:25 p.m. Tuesday. Toca arrived at the post office in a blue van decorated like an ice cream truck, said Mission police Sgt. Jody Tittle. Toca appeared nervous as officers approached him while he held boxes outside the post office. When asked what was inside the boxes, Toca told investigators he didn’t know, Tittle said. Toca gave officers consent to open the boxes...

It's always FUn to see the DUmmies turn on their erstwhile messiah, The One. This time they turn on him because they want to "turn on" themselves! You see, the former (?) coke-snorting, dope-smoking Barry Soetoro is cracking down on the use of their favorite recreational drugs. So out come the Dopey DUpes of DUmmieland to DUmp on the Hypocrite of Hope! Witness this THREAD, "Seriously Obama? Smoke a joint last week, go to jail for DUI this week?" So put on your gas mask as we enter the hazy black-lit basement that is DUmmie Underground, where the comments...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States has warned of "severe consequences" if a successful extremist attack in America were traced back to Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes." The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a failed bid to bomb New York's Times Square last Saturday. If proven, it would be the group's first act in the United States. Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad has been charged with driving the crude homemade bomb into Midtown Manhattan and said he acted alone, according to authorities. But investigators have uncovered possible links to the...

PALM BAY, Fla. -- A local bank customer was hailed as a hero Thursday night for taking down a man who said he was down on his luck and he decided to commit a robbery. Floyd Francis gave up instantly, police said, and he was taken to the Brevard County Jail. "I drew my gun on him and put him down," Ruben Torres said. In a hand-written confession, Francis said he tried to rob the Space Coast Credit Union in Palm Bay because he needed money. He wrote, "I make music for a living, but tings not working out right...

Okay I have found the perfect Free Republic Thread! Top This! A Pit Bull bites the leg of a Mormon Missionary who is campaigning door to door for Duncan Hunter 2012 and tries to defend himself against the Pit Bull with a Sarah Palin for President yard sign and stumbles into the street where he is hit by a car with a Ron Paul 2000 bumper sticker. Then you would have the perfect Free Republic thread.

Here's some art I made for a blog post from early March (before I joined up here). If you'd like you can read the full post here The Looking Spoon is a conservative humor/satire/art/commentary blog, visit www.thelookingspoon.com to see more posts!

Details are starting to emerge regarding the Qatari diplomat who slipped into an airplane bathroom for a mid-flight smoke, touching off a bomb scare and creating minor media crisis. Turns out that it was not a cigarette that Mohammed Al-Madadi was smoking, but something else all together. Leave it to Fox News anchor Shep Smith to cut through the malarkey, and tell us what really went down.

EAST HAMPTON - A 27-year-old woman has been charged with two counts of risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment after two toddlers were found wandering around town in just their diapers, police said. Police found two boys, ages 2 and 3, close to Flatbrook Road in a wooded area near a stream. Police said the boys were outside for about an hour. When their mohter, Julie Root, showed up to the scene, she appeared to be under the influence of prescription pain medications, police said.

Mark Levin Thread Show Post for Dummies

Seeking to overturn the city's medical marijuana ordinance even before it takes effect, a loose-knit coalition of Los Angeles collectives is quietly gathering signatures to force a referendum on the law. The scrappy, largely volunteer effort faces a Monday deadline to turn in 27,425 valid signatures. "We're getting down to the wire here," said Dan Halbert, who runs Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista and has coordinated the campaign. "It's going to be close."

BURLINGAME – Taking to the airwaves to sound the alarm about stopping cuts to public education, the California Teachers Association today launched radio ads statewide underscoring the toll on students from cuts. The radio ads reflect the dire concerns witnessed by educators reeling from $17 billion in California education cuts over the last two years, the largest cuts since the Great Depression. Instead of investing in education, the governor is proposing new education cuts of $2.5 billion. The state ranks 46th in education spending, while a new UCLA study shows state cuts led to increased class sizes in 74 percent...