A record high 50% of Americans support legalization of marijuana

An all time record HIGH number of Americans now support legalization of marijuana according to the latest research from Gallup. The number of those in favor has now reached a respectable 50% or half of the population. This is up from 46% last year. Currently only 16 states allow medial use even though feds still consider any such use illegal. There appears to be a general trend - young and more open minded/Liberal people tend to be in favor. However, we expect this support to grow over time as the younger generations phase out the more conservative older folks.

To recap the main points:
- marijuana is the most commonly abused drug in US after alcohol and tobacco
- 50% now favor legalization compared to 46% last year
- Liberals are twice more likely to support than Conservatives
- Democrats and independents more likely to favor than Republicans
- 62% approval for ages 18 to 29
- last year 70% supported legalization for medical use
- only 31% over 65 are in favor
- more men than women are in support
- some states have decriminalized MJ while others made it legal for medical use only
- former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders supports lagalization
- 46% still think it should be illegal

[Gallup]

Haves and Have-Nots: statistics confirm growing disparity between the working classes

As the Occupy Wall Street movement embarks on its "Millionaire's March" to protest New York state's 2% millionaire tax set to expire at the end of 2011 here are a few enlightening facts about the wealthiest 1% of Americans:

- top 1% owns 40% of the national wealth (25 years ago they owned 33%)
- bottom 80% owns only 7% of national wealth
- top 1% takes home 24% of national income (in 1976 they took home only 9%)
- top 1% own half of all US stocks, bonds and mutual funds
- bottom 50% only own 0.5% of US stocks, bonds and mutual funds
- top 1% only have 5% of the national personal debt
- bottom 90% have a whooping 73% of the national debt
- top 1% take home a greater portion of national income than they ever have since 1920s

Now take a wild guess who does all the hard work for the 1% and who is underpaid and overworked?

[Yahoo Finance]

Fight corporations by mailing their unsolicited offers back to them!

Want to help Occupy Wall Street protesters in their fight against corporate greed? Here is how you can contribute today!

MAIL THEM BACK! That's right folks. Take those Credit Card offers along with all the other junk and spam mail that corporations flood our homes with and send them right back to them.

Here is what doing this will accomplish:
- make corporations pay for postage (put more of their junk into those envelopes to weight them down and increase postage costs)
- make corporations pay for processing your returned mail offers (this puts more hard working Americans to work)
- creates more work and jobs for hard working Post Office employees (paid for by the corporations)
- re-distributes some of the corporate wealth back to the taxpayers
- lets them know exactly how you feel about their unsolicited SPAM (which is actually illegal, but somehow does not apply to them)
- will one day put a stop to this unnecessary SPAM (and save our trees and the environment)

If we all do it - we can wear them down and bring about some very needed changes. Eventually they will have to stop wasting our trees and destroying our environment on useless unsolicited mail. Join the fight - it is your constitutional right as a taxpayer and an obligation as a voter.

Another day, another oil spill, when will we learn?

Oct. 5 on Astrolabe Reef, 14 miles from Tauranga Harbour on New Zealand's North Island

Another ship crashed on October 5th this time atop the Astrolabe Reef 14 miles off the cost of Tauranga Harbour on New Zealand's North Island. Luckily this is a cargo ship and not an oil tanker but the impact on the environment and New Zealand's coast line can already be felt as local volunteers start the laborious and costly cleanup.

Here is the scoop:
- 11 of 1,368 containers on board contain hazardous substances and may very likely end up in the ocean
- it is still not clear why the ship crashed into the well-charted reef in calm weather
- so far light oiling of pristine Tauranga beaches has been observed
- the oiling of the beaches is expected to increase as more oil washes ashore in the coming days
- initial estimates suggest that 200-300 metric tons of heavy fuel oil have spilled so far
- this is New Zealand's biggest maritime environmental disaster to date
- officials believe the ship has 1,700 metric tons of oil and 200 metric tons of diesel on board
- the ship has developed a huge crack in the hull and is in the process of breaking up
- the full environmental impact is still unknown
- 200 oiled birds had been found dead
- 41 oiled birds were treated at the wildlife emergency center
- locals have witnessed dead fish washing ashore
- captain could face a fine of up to 10,000 New Zealand dollars ($7,800 US) and 12 months in prison
- the captain's name has not been disclosed for fear of personal retaliation
- the ship belongs to Greece-based Costamare Inc.

[Yahoo News]

This is why Occupy Wall Street protesters are unhappy...

Still confused why Occupy Wall Street protesters are unhappy and what it is that they want? No worries this informative documentary should answer all your questions...

In short, people are fed up with the corporate America and the way most corporations have been conducting business. There is nothing wrong with making money responsibly in a way that makes this world a safer and better place for everyone, but this is hardly the case today. With their single focus been that of profiteering at any cost there is very little regard left for the environment or the people. Hiding behind hordes of scummy corporate lawyers most corporations have cut corners and engaged in unlawful activities in the name of profit alone. 'The Corporation' dwells into many different aspects of the corporate world and is perhaps one of the most important documentaries of our time. This should really be a part of the standard curriculum material taught in every school.

This is the one documentary that corporations like Nike, Monsanto, Bayer and many others do not want you to see! It is also a must see for any self-respecting citizen that likes to think on his own.

By the way, in case you were wondering, Wall Street is also a corporation that has one and only one goal in mind - to turn up a profit!



Memorable quotes from 'The Corporation':

Noam Chomsky: "Corporations were given the rights of immortal persons. But then special kinds of persons, persons who had no moral conscience. These are a special kind of persons, which are designed by law, to be concerned only for their stockholders. And not, say, what are sometimes called their stakeholders, like the community or the work force or whatever."

Michael Moore: "I believe the mistake that a lot of people make when they think about corporations, is they think you know, corporations are like us. They think they have feelings, they have politics, they have belief systems, they really only have one thing, the bottom line - how to make as much money as they can in any given quarter. That's it."

Dr. Robert Hare: "One of the questions that comes up periodically is to what extent could a corporation be considered to be psychopathic. And if we look at a corporation as a legal person, that it may not be that difficult to actually draw the transition between psychopathy in the individual to psychopathy in the corporation. We could go through the characteristics that define this disorder, one by one, to how they might apply to corporations. They would have all the characteristics, and, in fact, in many respects, the corporation of that sort is the proto-typical of a psychopath."

[IMDb]



If this is any indication of the Corporations's true intentions here is what the Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan had to say in defense of the new $5 monthly fee on debit card use:

"I have an inherent duty as a CEO of a publicly owned company to get a return for my shareholders" ... "they'll understand what we're doing - understand we have a right to make a profit."

What a feeble attempt to force people into a Credit Card trap! Here is how everyone can cast their vote on this issue - switch to a different bank that does not charge these fees.

[CNN Money]