Author Howard Zinn dead at 89

Noted author and social activist Howard Zinn died of a heart attack Wednesday while traveling, his daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn, said.

Zinn, author of "A People's History of the United States," was 89. Kabat-Zinn said her father, who lived in Auburndale, Massachusetts," died while traveling in Santa Monica, California.

"A People's History of the United States," first published in 1980, tells a history not often in seen in other books -- from the perspective of those not in a seat of power.

The book was the inspiration for a 2009 documentary, narrated by Zinn, called "The People Speak." The film highlighted people who spoke up for social change, according to the Web site of the History Channel, which aired the program.

Zinn was a shipyard worker and Air Force bombardier before he went to college under the GI Bill and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University, according to his Web site. He taught at numerous universities, including Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Kabat-Zinn said of her father that he lived a "very full and exciting life" and that there were many social issues that were very important to him. Above all, she said, her father believed that there is no "just war."

Zinn's death on the day of President Obama's first State of the Union address was underscored by his contribution to a recently released special from The Nation magazine called "Obama at One."

"I've been searching hard for a highlight," he wrote. "The only thing that comes close is some of Obama's rhetoric; I don't see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies."

Zinn said he was not "terribly disappointed because I didn't expect that much," noting that he has been "a traditional Democratic president" on foreign policy -- "hardly any different from a Republican" -- and has been cautious in domestic policy.

"On health care, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now," Zinn said.

Zinn also cautioned "that Obama is going to be a mediocre president -- which means, in our time, a dangerous president -- unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."

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Hello Everyone,
This episode is called "orphaned pennies" After listening to the State of the Union, a little idea about the economy and the redistribution of wealth, in a low-key kind of way.


Here's the URL to tune in the show:
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for archived podcasts:
http://exileguy.mypodcast.com/index.html

featuring music & spoken word, in order of appearance, from:

DJ Monkey - "buick remix"
Pat Condell - "Thank God for Andy Choudary"
Afro Fiesta - "Equal Rights"
Ellyn Maybe - "There Were Two Girls Who Looked A Lot The Same"
Ram Jam Productions - "Marijuana"
The Individuals - "Blaze It Up"
Achim Schultz - "Give Peace A Chance"

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Don't forget to check out Radio Free Exile Televised.
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Now you can see what you've been hearing.

Recent additions to the Radio Free Exile Televised stream:


Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis - "Side By Side"
B Pattullo - "24 Frames Act 1"
Kenny Edwards - "Resurrection Road"
Ntonga's Playing For Change Music and Arts School
Ellyn Maybe -"There Were Two Girls Who Looked A Lot The Same"
Leonard Cohen - "Bird On A Wire"
Playing For Change/Afro Fiesta - "Equal Rights"
Ram Jam Productions - "Marijuana"
Pat Condell - "Thank God for Andy Choudary"

Pat Condell - Thank God for Andy Choudary

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Afro Fiesta - "Equal Rights"

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The Zimmers - 'My Generation'

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Cops, Clergy & Drugs

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Majority Backs Medical Marijuana, but Feds Won't Budge

When it comes to reforming the nation's health care system, Americans are firmly divided. But a surprisingly large majority now agrees that if you're sick, you should be allowed to pass the peace pipe.
Eighty-one percent of U.S. adults favor legalizing marijuana in a medical context, according to a telephone poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post last week. In 1997, 69 percent of respondents were in favor of the idea.
The news led some, such as the Raw Story's Stephen C. Webster, to conclude that "the medical marijuana debate among American voters is over." Indeed, voters in nine states have approved medical marijuana provisions, beginning with
California in 1996.
But it's not just citizens who are catching whiffs of a budding new era: The legislatures of five other states, most recently New Jersey, also passed their own laws setting up specific, government-sponsored programs that provide controlled access to the plant to ill patients -- bringing to 14 the grand total of states where medical marijuana is available.
Studies have shown that marijuana can help fight pain in some patients and ease nausea that often accompanies cancer treatments.
Despite the Obama administration's recently stated tolerance for state-sponsored medical marijuana measures (the Justice Department announced last year it won't prosecute patients abiding by state laws), pot is an illegal drug under federal law, and users can be punished under a number of strict penalties. Since 1970, the DEA has classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance, alongside heroin and LSD, all of which have been deemed to have a "high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted medical use."
Yet scientists seeking federal clearance to grow and study their own marijuana crops for therapeutic effects continue to find their requests rebuffed. "Marijuana is the only major drug for which the federal government controls the only legal research supply and for which the government requires a special scientific review," The New York Times reports. That supply is grown on a single plantation at the University of Mississippi. Meanwhile, scientists investigating other illegal drugs such as LSD can turn to many other suppliers.
Despite strong support from local voters, state efforts to allow medical marijuana use often have gone up in smoke because of federal restrictions.
The first to fail was Arizona. Voters approved a ballot measure in 1996 allowing physicians to prescribe the drug. But they are barred from doing so professionally since it is against federal law. Some states got around this barrier by using other words such as "recommend" instead of "prescribe." A new provision to change Arizona's medical marijuana wording is gaining steam and may end up on the ballot later this year, CollegeNews reports.
In 1998, the District of Columbia's vote to legalize medical marijuana was superseded by congressional action. Congress recently cleared the way for the medical marijuana program to begin, though, so the D.C. council is moving ahead with plans to set up five dispensaries.
Finally, in 2003, Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich signed a bill that allows people arrested and prosecuted on possession charges to use "medicinal necessity" in their defense, which they must prove with a physician's recommendation. But the state's terminally patients are still irked that they have turn to unreliable black market sources to procure their medicine.
So while medical marijuana activists can cheer at the news that voters are on their side, the government is still in many cases behind the (high) times.

Robertson and Limbaugh spouting lunacy again

The response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti shows once again how the best of us rise to the top like cream and the worst of us sink to the bottom like sludge.

TV Evangelist Pat Robertson and radio fulminator Rush Limbaugh both responded to the disaster with idiotic statements about its cause and effect.

On the CBN network, Robertson said the earthquake was a “Blessing in disguise.” Then he left sanity behind and jumped into fantasy by saying that Haitians had made a pact with the Devil.

Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people may not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you get us free from the French.' True story. And so the Devil said, 'Okay, it’s a deal.' …But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

Robertson ignored the fact that Haiti gained its independence from France in 1804. That’s 206 years ago, so it is highly unlikely that there is anyone in Haiti who made this fictitious deal with the Devil.

But if Robertson is right, doesn’t this mean that if your ancestors did something sinful in 1804, you’re also going to go to hell for it?

Pat Robertson doesn’t care about the people suffering in Haiti. With his inflated ego, Robertson only cares about himself, and his television ratings.

Rush Limbaugh’s comments about Haiti also totally ignore the reality of the situation. On his radio show, he said the response to the earthquake is all about politics.

This will play right into Obama's hands, humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this burnish, shall we say, creditability with the black community, both the light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made the order form - that's why it could not wait to get out there.”

Limbaugh, with the lack of logic that’s become his trademark, thinks that every move the President Obama makes is politically calculated. Limbaugh doesn’t talk about the relief effort as a humanitarian task that we are morally obligated to undertake.

To Limbaugh, the relief effort is just more left-wing politics. But as usual, Rush is wrong.

New Jersey Medical Marijuana!

TRENTON — Gov. Jon Corzine tonight signed a measure making New Jersey the 14th state to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, part of a flurry of bills the Democrat penned in his last full day on the job.


The marijuana bill (S119) is expected to take effect in six months. Only patients with specific illnesses would be permitted to get a prescription: cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, seizure disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gherig’s disease), severe muscle spasms, muscular dystrophy, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease and any terminal illness if a doctor has determined the patient will die within a year.


The law allows the state health department to include other illnesses when it writes rules implementing it.


The law has other restrictions, such as forbidding people from growing their own marijuana, ensuring it is dispensed through licensed “alternate treatment centers,” and requiring designated caretakers who retrieve the drug on behalf of someone severely ill to undergo criminal background checks.

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palin speaks

California: Lawmakers Cast First Vote In Nearly 100 Years To Repeal Marijuana Prohibition

Lawmakers on the California Assembly, Committee on Public Safety, voted 4 to 3 today in favor of Assembly Bill 390: The Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act — which seeks to legalize the production, distribution, and personal use of marijuana for adults age 21 and older. The vote is first time since 1913, when California became one of the first states in the nation to criminalize the use and possession of marijuana, that lawmakers have called for the repeal of cannabis prohibition.



“Today’s vote marks the first time in nearly a century that California lawmakers have reassessed this failed criminal policy,” said NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano. “Any risks presented by the use of marijuana by adults falls within the ambit of choice we should permit individuals in a free society. It’s time replace the failings of marijuana prohibition with a policy of legalization, regulation and education. Today’s vote is a significant, albeit first step in this direction.”



Further Committee votes on AB 390 are unlikely to take place this session because of legislative calendar restraints. However, the bill’s sponsor, San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, said that he would likely reintroduce a similar version of the bill later this month.



Registered supporters for the measure included: the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the California Public Defenders Association, among others.



Registered opponents of the bill included: the California Fraternal Order of Police, the California Narcotics Officers Association, the California Police Chiefs Association, the California State Sheriffs’ Association, the California Peace Officers’ Association, and the California District Attorneys Association.



Voting ‘yes’ on the bill were Ammiano, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. Voting no were Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Gardena (Los Angeles County), Assemblyman Danny Gilmore, R-Hanford (Kings County) and Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills (San Bernardino County).

Pot clubs go nationwide - NZ

Cannabis clubs – where users flout the law by meeting to smoke and buy the Class C drug – may soon open nationwide.

Next month founding members of New Zealand's first cannabis connoisseurs' club, Auckland's Daktory, plan to meet fellow users throughout the country to help set-up Daktories in other cities.

"We have demand from virtually every city in the country," Daktory founder Dakta Green told Sunday News.

" I would expect to see in the next 12 months Daktories in every major city in this country, every city should have at least one - 2010 is the year people within our culture are demanding changes throughout the world."

Auckland's Daktory, in New Lynn, plans to offer "degrees in Daktology" later this year – formalised study on all aspects of the cannabis industry including hands-on cultivation techniques.

For the first two-and-a-half months the Daktory was open cannabis was sold from the venue, and at one point almost 20 different strands of cannabis were available.

That was stopped, not by police, but by demand Green said: "It got too popular and too busy." Cannabis is again for sale from the Daktory, as it's planned to be at all newly established cannabis clubs.

The Daktory's nationwide plans follow more than a year of hassle-free law-breaking by club members.

In the 14 months since the Daktory opened – in November 2008 – there hadn't been a single police raid on their Delta St premises until Sunday News asked questions of police this week.

Police national headquarters refused to comment, as did Waitakere police, but yesterday four police cars swooped on the Daktory.

Officers executed a search warrant and Daktory members said they confiscated lighting equipment and lap-top computers.

Detective Rhys Wilson wouldn't comment on what police had seized, but said a number of exhibits had been taken and police had a considerable amount of work to do at the address. Police charged one man with cultivating cannabis and further charges against him were likely, Wilson said.

The Daktory boasts more than 2000 members who pay a monthly fee to smoke (mainly, their own cannabis) within the club's spacious warehouse.

Members, whose names remain confidential, must be at least 18 and sign up for a year's membership. Green, 59, said the oldest club-member was "in their late 70s", and that doctors, lawyers, court officials and business people were among the membership.

Schoolteachers were most highly represented, he said. Green, who changed his name from Ken Morgan by Deed Poll, runs the Daktory. He holds the company shares in trust, but plans to turn ownership over to a community trust in the near future.

That model is planned to be replicated nationwide: "We are a model for that to happen".

Dad-of-three Green, who is also a Norml – The National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws – board member wants cannabis legalised. The Daktory, like Norml's aptly named Mary Jane bus which is parked there, is a protest vehicle.

"We wish to legalise cannabis, but we also wish to live like it's legal," Green said.

"So in my home [Green lives at the Daktory] we have a motto `live like it's legal'. We just think it's wrong and there's no reason to continue with serious criminality of something that is as relatively harmless as cannabis."

And Green and his members certainly `live like it's legal' at the Daktory.

Next to one coffee table, cannabis spotting knives sit on an element, a gas bottle connected beneath. Plastic bongs, bucket bongs and cannabis smoking pipes are scattered about.

When Sunday News toured the premises this week, more than a dozen cannabis plants were being grown on a sunny window-sill and two others under a heat lamp, in a metallic, heat-reflecting box, locked off from the lounge area.

In Green's upstairs kitchen, half a dozen cannabis bongs – plastic, metal and glass, small and large – were scattered about and White Rhino strand cannabis buds were present in a glass container.

Under the Misuse of Drug Act 1975 possession of cannabis is punishable by three months' jail and or a fine of up to $500 and possession for supply and cultivation of cannabis is punishable by up to seven years' jail. Possessing cannabis utensils is also illegal. Last month, when asked about the Daktory, New Lynn sergeant Grant Watson said police's position on cannabis was quite clear – it's illegal.

"It doesn't matter where you are, in a private dwelling or anywhere, smoking and possessing cannabis is an offence against the Misuse of Drugs Act and carries a fine and/or a term of imprisonment," he said.

Before busting the Daktory yesterday, police had targeted motorists leaving the Daktory during the new year period. Green took issue with this because "it's a waste of police resources" and he believes that type of policing is illegal.

"I refuse to be subjected to arrest, harassment by police and imprisonment because I am part of a culture that celebrates and glorifies cannabis for people within our culture," he said.

To prove Daktory members were being `harassed", on January 2, Green drove around the block from his home with a Daktory member filming from the back seat. Green said his plan "worked beautifully". In a video, now posted on You Tube, and proudly shown to Sunday News, Green is pulled over almost immediately by police. After showing officers his licence he is soon let go – free of charge.

The stunt doesn't mean Green is against new legislation making it illegal for motorists to drive under the influence of drugs. Daktory members are advised to have a sober drive and to rest between smoking and driving. Members "farewell me with clear eyes", Green said.

Earlier this week, before the raid, Green said he wasn't surprised the Daktory hadn't been shutdown by authorities.

"It's my house and I've been told by police in the past, `don't smoke in public, smoke in private and we will leave you alone'."

Green's issue with cannabis laws' are that ordinary people are being locked up for using a substance "scientifically proven to be less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes". He said cannabis was part of popular culture and "the fact that everybody is doing it is a damn good reason to stop locking a few of us up". Norml claims someone is arrested on cannabis-related charges every 37 minutes in New Zealand, some 15,000 annually. Green also wants to see the cannabis industry "out of the hands of what are criminals by definition, and put in the hands of the community where it can be properly controlled."

He said at the moment the black-market cannabis trade was "out of control". The Daktory, Green said, was a "safe haven" for users and ensured they weren't put in danger while trying to buy cannabis.

Despite championing cannabis law reform, Green – who also pushed for Saturday trading and in the 1980s ran a casino on a boat beyond police jurisdiction – doesn't advocate cannabis use. He was against it until age 40.

"Cannabis is not for everyone. I don't advocate to anyone to take it up, but I do advocate that cannabis is not a dangerous product."

"Very few over-indulge" in cannabis at the Daktory – it's more coffee-shop than nightclub in that respect, Green said.

Visitors to the Daktory – open Wednesday to Sunday – could expect to see people: "Sitting around enjoying a quiet chat and a quiet toke, perhaps listening to the music, and generally relaxing. It's a very laxed out place," Green explained, quick to dispel beliefs it was a "stoners club".

The Daktory is a comfortable venue, like a recreation-centre. There are dozens of couches, armchairs and coffee tables spread around an open-plan space.

Coffee is available – food is planned – and there's a pool, fus and a table tennis table plus a projector screen, a library – which includes a copy of Shakespeare's complete works – and music.

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New Stuff on Radio Free Exile Televised

Hi All,
Here are some new additions to the Radio Free Exile Televised stream, little bits of everything and a little something for everyone - so check it out when you have a moment, and make the time if you don't have it, it'll make you happy.


MiNsTer Hill - "Everything"
Playing for Change - "Felangaye"
Yoko Ono - Unveiling the Imagine Peace Tower on Second Life
Dan Bern - "Marilyn Monroe" Live
How To Start Your Own Mind Control Cult
Arman Finesmith - "u rascal u"
George Harrison & Paul Simon - "Here Comes The Sun/Homeward Bound" live, 1975, from SNL
Peter Gabriel - "Animal Nation"
Chris Chandler - "This Is Not A Folk Song"

Image of toaster appears on Virgin Mary painting

FAIRFIELD - Parishioners packed the Fairfield Church of Nazarene this week as word of the toaster apparition spread throughout the community. The phenomenon continues to prompt waves of intense emotion as people try to comprehend the heavenly message. Throughout viewing hours set up by the church, people can be seen weeping, fainting, and praying.

The miracle toaster appears embedded and glowing within the painting of the Virgin Mary hanging at the front of the church. Many feel the apparition is somehow intended to convey the opposite message of many heavily publicized sightings the Virgin Mary on pieces of toast around the U.S. in recent years.

Church officials report the toaster appears to be a KitchenAid KMTT200OB which is a medium quality four-slice toaster that comes with a one year warranty. The unit generally retails for $69.99.

Church Pastor, Paul Edwards commented, "Although we don't yet understand the meaning of this phenomenon, we do understand the Lord works in mysterious ways. Possibly this is meant to benefit our parish financially. We are considering offering the painting on eBay."