Amazing! Ohio has an opportunity to be #1 in the world developing a new industry - a new economy - better and different than anywhere else in the world - ahead of the other 49 states in America and every other country in the world - as citizens of California foolishly failed to pass Proposition 19 today.

Supporters include the California branch of the NAACP, state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Young Democrats, the Republican Liberty Caucus, the California Council of Churches, and several big labor unions.

"The Obama Administration has been clear in its opposition to marijuana legalization because research shows that marijuana use is associated with voluntary treatment admissions for addiction, fatal drugged driving accidents, mental illness, and emergency room admissions," Kerlikowske said.

What tools of old economy polluting industry our PROGRESSIVE (sic.) Democrats have proved to be!

I can't wait for 2012 and the next Presidential election! The next two years are going to be fun, for a change... I love a GOOD WAR.

I once told an supposedly "green" friend that in the future he will not get to jet off to India or Brazil if he can afford, as that will not be ecologically responsible. He nearly cried.

Flying Is One of the Worst Things You Can Do for the Environment -- So Why Do So Many Well-Intentioned Folks Do It?

It's not easy being "Green" - that is life... as highlighted here, and provided in full below, from AlterNet:

The trouble with this is that flying is the single most ecologically costly act of individual consumption, one that requires the exploitation of large amounts of environmental and human resources. In a world of deep inequality, it thus also speaks to privilege -- most notably what we might call ecological privilege -- and its ugly flipside, disadvantage.

Moreover, the climate-destabilizing effects of air travel -- per passenger mile -- dwarfs that of other modes because of the enhanced climatic “forcing” it brings about: due to the height at which planes fly combined with the mixture of gases and particles they emit, conventional air travel detrimentally impacts global climate approximately 2.7 times more than that of its carbon emissions alone, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

To those who don't understand the change that is occurring in the civilized world, outside Ohio, consider this new product line from Colorado and realize if you are in Ohio you can't have any - you can't have the health benefits - you can't be an entrepreneur to compete with this product line - you can't innovate in this space - you can't hang out with these innovators or their class of people - you can't access their markets, customers or investors - because you live across the cannabis divide from civilization, in corrupt, coal-brained Ohio.

But you WILL have lots of pollution from coal-burning in your lungs, in Ohio!

Smart? No! Grohio!

Marijuana Soda Provides a High Without the Smoke

One Colorado soda company has developed a line of sodas that have an unusual ingredient: marijuana. Dixie Elixirs has made their drinks available to anyone with a prescription for medical marijuana.

These poll results, just released today, explain why I will vote and I will vote ANYTHING BUT REPUBLICAN - followed by ANYTHING BUT CONSERVATIVE - followed by ANYTHING BUT 65+ OLD FART... those groups of people are found by most recent Gallop polling to be most likely to be flat-Earther anti-science tools of industry and are not welcome as leaders of my society.

Those I will seek out to vote for will be, in the following order, LIBERALS, THOSE 18-49, from the WEST, DEMOCRATIC and INDEPENDENT, as they poll as most real about public health, liberty, economics and freedom... which is what the issue of legalization of marijuana and hemp is all about.

How I shall ultimately cast my most important ballot is with my feet, choosing to move where I find people most like myself, being liberal, Independent, young (at heart) and West... until Ohio shakes its old-fart conservative Flat Earther failure and gets real.

A dear friend just sent this to me and asked me to send it on to  20 people and ask them to send it on to  20 others, etc. I was  struck by its common sense and the fact that we agree with each other, not always the case after many years have passed, I am sorry to say. So, if you agree, email this to 20 people; and, if you disagree, forgetaboutit:

As October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, citizens of Ohio should reflect upon the words of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and his official state policy on Medical Marijuana - “The governor feels that the predominant opinion of the medical community is that there are existing medicines available that provide appropriate patient care“... “So based on that opinion and the current research, he feels this type of legislation doesn’t seem necessary or warranted“ - and realize he is DEAD wrong - "the latest research is proving that cannabinoids, as part of this bodily system, play a mitigating role in breast cancer." That is consistent with historical findings that cannabinoids may have cancer-fighting qualities:

What begs discussion on the occasion of California’s historic vote, which the whole world is watching, is that cannabis has been shown in hundreds of laboratory studies over the past ten years not only to be physiologically harmless, but also to be the most potent anti-cancer agent found in nature. No other natural substance holds the cancer-stopping power of cannabis and that's a proven fact.

In addition, cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana, shrink and prevent the spread of tumors far more effectively than synthetic chemotherapy agents, for the simple reason that they destroy cancer cells without damaging healthy cells, a feat that widely prescribed chemotherapy cocktails can't duplicate.

Dan Moore continues the quest for developing/encouraging/supporting company "founders" as we kick off the next  session of FOUNDERS CAFÉ:

• How to find "unmet needs" in the market place. The message will be the ideas that are most successful are often needs that are out there "hiding in plain sight."
• Discuss sources of unmet needs and how to determine whether a perceived need is truly a need.
• Discuss how to fund very early stage ventures.

Dear Reader,

Since you have been reading AlterNet, you know that we feel very strongly about the destructive effects of the drug war. In the case of marijuana, our laws are clearly doing more harm than good.  

For a substance with many beneficial qualities and very little negative effects, tens of thousands of lives are undermined and enormous amounts of money is wasted. Somewhere around 750,000 arrests are make each year for possession of small amounts of marijuana, which seems absurd.

Legal, licensed Super Skunk and Blueberry Medical Marijuana and Cannabutter food samples from Green Depot, Denver, Colorado

In Denver, Colorado, the above medicine cabinet provides citizens economic opportunity and legal, natural, organic relief from many health ailments - in Cleveland, Ohio, the contents get citizens arrested... especially if they fit the demographic profiles targeted by new Jim Crow laws in America, designed to imprison our poor, minority, urban male population.

That reality defines The Cannabis Divide in America, which presents modern Americans with some of the greatest economic and social disparities in the history of the nation, leading to treatment and accommodations for blacks and Latinos (prison) that are inferior to those provided for white Americans (freedom), systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages (defining Jim Crow laws).

As I highlight below, from a study about criminal injustice in Northeast Ohio: "those areas that have the highest percentages of African-Americans are especially likely to be subject to police surveillance and arrests" for drug possession, leading to poorer treatment and accommodation of proportionately more blacks than whites in our inferior quality-of-life prisons.

"Of those drug possession cases in which the race of arrestee is known within Cleveland city limits, as Table 1 below illustrates, there has been a consistent magnitude of over-representation of non-whites among drug possession arrestees over the past 10 years."

The repackaging of LeBron James beyond parochial-Cleveland regional slave to global free-thinking phenomenon has begun. Enjoy this first world-class commercial video redefining the LeBron James persona of the future - the African American leader of the future - escaped from the slavery of small-mindedness, asking "What should I do? Should I be who you want me to be?"

From my personal experience, I must ask Clevelanders... do you really know who are your greatest leaders, and what you want your leaders to do? Are you satisfied with what your chosen leaders provide to citizens? Are they the real reason the Cavs are not champions - that LeBron is gone?

This week, I was thrilled to receive the following forward-thinking message from Nachy Kanfer, Campaign Representative, Midwest States, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign:

Hi Norm, I think we should take down Cleveland Thermal. Thoughts?

Cleveland Thermal is a major private out-of-state-investor-owned downtown Cleveland and regional air polluter that burns 10,000s tons of coal each year... emits 1,000s of tons of pollution on Clevelanders and the surrounding world each year... to benefit only large real estate investors and corporate, institutional and government customers - much like the private, out-of-license "district" coal-burning Medical Center Company (MCCO) plant polluting the community excessively a few miles away, in University Circle.

EPA Greenversations: “Preventing Lead Poisoning”

Posted on October 25th, 2010 - 10:30 AM

Picture this: You live in a gorgeous older row home in Washington D. C. Although it’s a “fixer upper”, you bought it for its unmatched Victorian charm and its unbeatable location (Who doesn’t want to live next to a cupcake shop?). You finally decide it’s time to remodel the kid’s room and update the kitchen, but your spidey-sense is going off because you know that renovating a pre-1978 homes with lead paint can have risks. What’s the next step?

• Do a search on the internet about EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule

• Look for a contractor, but make sure to ask them if they are EPA Lead-Safe Certified

• Check with your pediatrician about testing your children for lead

1-4 PM Sunday, October 24, 2010

Spinosa returns to NEO

I've learned first-hand how people become environmentalists. They realize they are being polluted, get mad as hell, and do something about it... NIMBY... Not In My Back Yard!

Learning the harm of lead poisoning in my back yard made me an environmentalist against lead poisoning in my community and worldwide.

Learning the harm of pollution from the Arcelor/Mittal Cleveland Works steel mills in my back yard made me an environmentalist against steel production pollution in my community and worldwide.

Learning the harm of pollution from Medical Center Company coal burning in my back yard made me an environmentalist against coal burning in my community and worldwide.

Which has me exploring how big is my back yard... how big is my community?

On July 4, 2006, I posted Independence of the day: May the people of NEO find freedom from "Cleveland Works" - a big picture analysis of the $ multi-billion harm caused in Northeast Ohio each year as a result of the Mittal Cleveland Works steel plant being here, and I concluded: "I propose we start working as an activist community to eliminate Mittal and Cleveland Works and all polluters large and small from our region"... leading to "When I met with my counsel about legalizing cannabis in Ohio, I explained I never bring up a problem without a solution".

It is safe to say that my 2006 posting against Mittal pollution of Northeast Ohio was my first shot in a one-website war against all excessive and unreasonable polluters in Northeast Ohio - a war that has made me about as popular here as was Patton with the Nazis.

Clevelanders are victims of uncaring totalitarian dictators who are gassing our families with toxins that are unsafe for us and our community - they are disfiguring the data that would warn citizens of this harm - they use mainstream media to propagandize for polluters - they attempt to increase the pollution for industrialists' financial gains, at great public cost - they make us sick and weak with toxins that shorten our lives - they make this an undesirable place to raise a family, and for our children to raise families - THEY must be stopped.

In honor of the Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference in Cleveland this week, I thought I would share some real reflections on why so much property is vacant in Cleveland - lead poisoning... which impacted the whole world but has caused especially pronounced harm in Northeast Ohio, continuing today.

Comparison of relative temporal changes in lead concentration in tooth enamel and lake sediments, and relative changes in the total amount of lead additives to gasoline. Maximum absolute values and symbols are:  4.94 μg/g (teeth, smoothed data, uninterrupted line), 72.7 ppm (“new core Lake Erie sediment, triangles), 41.1 ppm  (Graney et al., 1995 Lake Erie sediment, open circles), and 253,000 mt of lead additives to gasoline produced in the US, closed circles (see Methods).

While I don't recall it being reported in Cleveland before, Thaindian News, of Bangkok, Thailand, reported, on June 16, 2010, Leaded gasoline chief culprit for 20th century neurological defects, which raises significant concerns about lead poisoning issues in Cleveland, Ohio, and America-wide, finding “It raises the question, has leaded gasoline had a lasting effect on many present-day Cleveland adults?” From Thaindian.com:

Leaded gasoline is to be blamed for nearly two-thirds of toxic lead ingested or inhaled by African-American children in Cleveland during the latter two-thirds of the 20th century, says a new study.

According to researchers from Case Western Reserve University, their findings probably apply to many cities across the US and reinforce concerns about the health threat for children in countries still using leaded gasoline.

However, they emphasize that the results do not minimize the ongoing importance of current childhood lead exposure due to persistence and deterioration of leaded paint which was used as late as the 1960’s.

There is an insightful article in the September 13, 2010, Wall Street Journal - Turning Away From Coal - which points out "Power companies are increasingly switching to natural gas to fuel their electricity plants, driven by low prices and forecasts of vast supplies for years to come. While the trend started in the late 1990s, the momentum is accelerating and comes at the expense of coal. Some utilities are closing coal-fired plants; others are converting them to run on gas." Futher, "The switch is occurring globally and is getting a push from regulators who want to limit emissions that contribute to climate change, haze and health problems such as respiratory illness."

This is excellent news for citizens of Northeast Ohio, who are victims of pollution from burning coal in many local and upwind coal powerplants that cause serious health consequences here - one in particular that citizens are fighting now is operated by the Medical Center Company, in the heart of University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio. Regarding such small coal-fired powerplants, The Journal reports: "Most big coal-burning utilities have invested billions of dollars to install pollution-control equipment on their largest coal-fired plants. But they are replacing or idling smaller coal plants for which such expenditures can't be justified."

In September 2009 I observed about Chicago... from The Reader: "Under Daley the city has embarked on aggressive tree planting, installed a green roof atop City Hall, and mapped out an ambitious plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions—but failed to ensure basic recycling services, force dirty power plants to clean up, or confront the city's traffic and transit problems... it did nothing to force the coal-fired power plants on the southwest side to cut emissions."

Citizen activism appears to have improved in Chicago, since then... citizens have become environmentalists, refusing to allow government to sustain dirty coal pollution and bad public health there.

That coal pollution has gone unchecked in Chicago, and will have broadly expanded in Illinois under Obama leadership in Illinois and the White House, may well put a nail in the coffin of Barack Obama's presidential aspirations for 2012... and this issue should keep Obama's right-hand-man Emanuel from succeeding in his pursuit to rule over the millions of poisoned citizens of Chicago, as mayor... and should stand in the way of Obama lifting Alexi Giannoulias into Obama's former Senate seat in Illinois, in November.

As the Obama administration continues the Bush doctrine to deny government responsibility to protect citizens from pollution.... Jeff Biggars asks, on AlterNet: "Will Rahm Emanuel and Other Chicago Mayoral Candidates Join the Clean Energy Race?"

As I recently wrote on realNEO, regarding legalizing medical marijuana in Ohio, Governor Ted Strickland “feels that the predominant opinion of the medical community is that there are existing medicines available that provide appropriate patient care. So based on that opinion and the current research, he feels this type of legislation doesn’t seem necessary or warranted.“

Yet "tens of thousands of sick people throughout California find relief from scores of ailments by using cannabis because this plant has so many healing qualities", according to Raymond Cushing's posting on Alternet - Prop. 19 Offers Major Potential for Some Cancer Patients.

So who is right... citizen-oriented AlterNet or our Governor, now seeking reelection.

On AlterNet we learn:

What begs discussion on the occasion of California’s historic vote, which the whole world is watching, is that cannabis has been shown in hundreds of laboratory studies over the past ten years not only to be physiologically harmless, but also to be the most potent anti-cancer agent found in nature. No other natural substance holds the cancer-stopping power of cannabis and that's a proven fact.

Legal Medical Marijuana from Broadway Wellness Medical Marijuana dispensary in South Denver, Colorado

How is it conceivable, in America today, that a seriously ill patient in Boulder, Colorado, may grow, purchase and have a medicine cabinet full of state-licensed medical marijuana (MMJ), while a similarly-ill patient in Cleveland may be imprisoned for pursuing the same medical treatment?

How, in the free-wheeling capitalist US of A, could some states and communities encourage free men and women to be MMJ-millionaires and patients, while MMJ-entrepreneurs and adherents in other markets are arrested... nearly 1 million of them a year.

Why would anyone choose to live in a state of Cannabis denial?

One of the greatest tricks about living in Northeast Ohio is preventing harmful lead poisoning exposure for children and adults living here - some neighborhoods of Cleveland still have around 30% of children showing harmful levels of lead in their blood, causing permanent physical and mental harm. So it is appropriate the United States Senate has declared the week before Halloween - October 24-30 - as National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, which "calls upon the people of the United States to observe National Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week with appropriate programs and activities."

In the spirit of the millions of Americans harmed by lead poisoning over the years, now dead and haunting those who cause such environmental harm on Earth today... may 2010 be the year when Northeast Ohio leaders get serious about protecting our children and adults from the trick of lead poisoning, as that is the greatest treat they may ever give to this community and themselves.

Was this reported in Cleveland?

Location

When politicians like Barack Obama, Ted Strickland, George Voinovich, Sherrod Brown, Marcia Fudge, Frank Jackson, Gary Norton and our councilpeople speak of the promise of "Clean Coal" and carbon capture and sequestration, ask the politicians how to safely capture coal slurry... especially after it has spilled... as that skill is needed in Ohio today. On October 1, 2010, Murray Energy (of Pepper Pike, Ohio) spilled 1,000s of gallons of toxic coal slurry into an Ohio stream, as reported by the Sierra Club in the video above. That is the same Murray Energy responsible for the collapse of the Crandall Canyon mine, in 2007, which "was so extensive, federal officials found no other mining disaster in the last 50 years to compare to it."

Was this reported in Cleveland?

The Sierra Club asks citizens to help stop Murray Coal from doing even more harm to our environment in Ohio...

What does climate change look like? The people of Boulder know only too well, having just dodged Colorado's worst wildfire ever - the Fourmile Canyon Wildfire.

The people of Fourmile Canyon - especially those who lost nearly 200 homes - are now climate change experts, as their sun-drenched, parched, droughted Rocky Mountain paradise went up in flames that rode hot dry winds across over four square miles of pristine forests, for days... just a few weeks ago.

Figure 1. Seasonal-mean temperature anomalies relative to 1951-1980 mean for the
most recent two summers and winters.

Climate Progress has a link today to an excellent report by NASA's top climatologist, Dr. James Hansen - “How Warm Was This Summer?” (copied below), which confirms that 2010 is equal to the hottest year on record, resulting in more extreme natural disasters worldwide this year, and forecasts worse impacts of climate change several years into the future, predicting "it is likely that 2012 will reach a record high global temperature." Meaning:

Given the association of extreme weather and climate events with rising global temperature, the expectation of new record high temperatures in 2012 also suggests that the frequency and magnitude of extreme events could reach a high level in 2012. Extreme events include not only high temperatures, but also indirect effects of a warming atmosphere including the impact of higher temperature on extreme rainfall and droughts. The greater water vapor content of a warmer atmosphere allows larger rainfall anomalies and provides the fuel for stronger storms driven by latent heat.