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:

I just received an after-the-fact announcement from President Obama's U.S. Department of Energy that Obama Administration Hosts Great Lakes Offshore Wind Workshop in Chicago with Great Lakes Wind Collaborative, reporting on "a workshop with the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative in Chicago on October 26 – 27, 2010, focused on the siting of offshore wind power in the Great Lakes. The two day workshop brought together wind developers, Federal and state regulators, environmental advocates, and other regional stakeholders to discuss methods for ensuring greater clarity, certainty and coordination of Federal and state decision-making for offshore wind development in the Great Lakes."

Yet, on September 14, 2010, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Bechtel among developers selected for building a Lake Erie wind farm off Cleveland's coast, stating:

The company that built Hoover Dam, the tunnel under the English Channel and 23,000 other gargantuan projects around the world is going to build the first wind turbines in Lake Erie. Bechtel Development Co. of San Francisco is one of three companies chosen to construct and own the five-turbine demonstration project about 7 miles off shore at an estimated cost of $100 million.

Small by wind farm standards, the five-turbine cluster has been proposed as the precursor to erecting thousands of turbines in the lake -- and jump-starting an entire industry in Northeast Ohio.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, who has chaired the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force for more than four years, agreed that the idea has always been jobs, not electricity, at least not at this point.

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.

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."

Hello Real NEO,

I am in the process of writing an article for Yahoo! News regarding the Ohio elections on November 2. I would like to feature the comments/opinions of 7 to 10 different voters, particularly regarding the races for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and the governor's race and any major ballot issues which are important to you.

I cannot use anonymous quotes (they won't be accepted without a full name, occupation and city)
 

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

Monday, I watched the sun rise over the New Mexico desert to "Just Another Day"... from Another Day on Earth... the glorious new Brian Eno album... perfect for exploring new frontiers...

We'll say, that was just another time,
One day, we will put it all behind,
We'll say, that was just another day on Earth

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.

Cannabis Convention - Denver, CO April 02, 2010 from Cannabis Commerce on Vimeo.

Pro-pot, progressive-minded voters of NEO, are you envious of the tremendous legalization inroads made in pioneering states like Colorado? The ones Norm Roulet described on realNEO here and here? Well, with the benefit of a couple years worth of hindsight, you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to actually improve upon legalization models developed by California and Colorado.

That’s right – disparaged, denigrated, and despoiled, Cleveland and NEO have a unique opportunity to shock the nation, transforming urban blight to urban bliss via cannabis commerce as Norm envisions with here and here.

But that can only happen if NEO pot proponents get it right from the start. I urge you to.

And I’m here to tell you exactly how you can.

What  if Martin Luther King gave up on his dream and then gave up on his people in his community.  What if Harriet Tubman gave up on her dream and mission. In nature only the weak give up because it is a death sentence. The pup that refuses water to drink will surely die. Rest assured I will never give up

My name is Jordan Pittman and I am a 28 year old resident of east cleveland and father of three beautiful girls. I found out about realneo from Norm Roulet. I met Norm about  3 years ago when a family member was doing work on the house that Norm was renovating in East Cleveland.  Norm saw his dog George Bush a Cane Corso and wanted to know where he could get one. My cousin Fred directed him to me a Cane Corso breeder at the time.

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

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.

I often ponder what are they thinking when I reflect on the current state of modern culture and the environment. Clearly, so does Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosophy professor at Princeton University, who published an inspiring editorial What will future generations condemn us for? in the September 26, 2010 Washington Post, below - see a poll on this subject at the Washington Post website, and participate in a poll on the same issue on realNEO here - When future generations look back on us, what will shock them most?

Matthew Harris works with a white widow marijuana plant at Marjyn Investments LLC in Oakland, Calif.
He is among 40 workers who joined the Teamsters this month. (Associated Press)

In states where medical marijuana is legal, there are a wide range of jobs created in diverse industries, including healthcare, food preparation, pharmaceutical research and development, retail, and agriculture.  In Ontario, Canada, there are over 100,000 jobs associated with marijuana cultivation alone - and most of the marijuana grown there is exported illegally to America.

A 2010 Pew poll found approximately 40% of Americans have tried Marijuana, about the same number believe marijuana should be legalized outright, and 73% of Americans - over 7 in 10 - believe medicinal marijuana should be legalized. Those polling numbers say the writing is on the wall - marijuana is becoming mainstream industry in America, as Americans get their way nationwide! Where marijuana is legal, it is a high-growth economic engine churning activity in many clusters.