Maine Votes to Legalize Medical Marijuana
Dispensaries

post from TalkLeft on 04 November 2009 12:57:00 AM. © TalkLeft

Maine is now the third state to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries.

In a landmark vote, Maine voters today approved Question 5, making the state the third in the country to license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and the first ever to do so by a vote of the people.

...Under the measure, the state will license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and set rules for their operation. While 13 states permit medical use of marijuana, only Rhode Island and New Mexico have similar dispensary provisions, both of which were adopted by the states’ legislatures....Question 5 also expands the list of medical conditions qualifying for protection under Maine’s law to include several conditions that are included in most other medical marijuana states, including intractable pain, agitation of Alzheimer’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”).

[More...]

Maine is the first state in the country where voters, as opposed to a legislature, approved licensed dispensaries. But, why should they have to be non-profit? Pharmacies and drug companies make money. If Endo, the maker of Percodan, which is illegal to possess without a prescription, can make a profit, shouldn't medical marijuana providers/growers also be allowed to make money?

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Virginia and New Jersey Results Show Democrats
Vulnerable in 2010

post from The Francis L. Holland Blog on 04 November 2009 12:38:00 AM. © The Francis L. Holland Blog

Republican governorship victories in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as their victories with the attorney general and lieutenant governor in Virginia shows that there is nothing inevitable about Democratic victories in Congressional elections in 2010. The public wants action on health care and jobs, is sensitive to new taxes on the poor and middle class, and will punish the Democratic Party if it fails to deliver, particularly on health care.

Unless sweeping health care reform is passed this year -- reform that delivers immediate help to those without health insurance -- voters will conclude that Democrats have not been doing anything and Democratic Party congresspeople will be turned out of office. It's not a question of logic; it's a question of voting against people who are getting paid to deliver change and are failing to do so.

Governor Jon Corzine in New Jersey seemed unconcerned with whether his tax policies were popular, raising taxes as his first order of business when he won the governorship four years ago. Meanwhile Deeds in Virginia was a lousy candidate with a lousy game plan.

Democrats cannot rest assured that they will win races in 2010 or 2012, for that matter. They have to show results on their progressive agendas, and President Obama will have to show that he's as concerned with the well-being of American workers and homeowners as he is with the well-being of the largest banks.

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Maine Election Results Thread #2

post from Open Left - Front Page on 04 November 2009 12:36:44 AM. © Open Left - Front Page

Update 47: The No On 1 campaign manager, Jesse Connolly, just went down with us to the ballroom and[...]

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Tonight's big lesson

post from Daily Kos on 04 November 2009 12:32:52 AM. © Daily Kos

There will be much number-crunching tomorrow, but preliminary numbers (at least in Virginia) show that GOP turnout remained the same as last year, but Democratic turnout collapsed. This is a base problem, and this is what Democrats better take from tonight:

If you abandon Democratic principles in a bid for unnecessary "bipartisanship", you will lose votes.

If you water down reform in favor of Blue Dogs and their corporate benefactors, you will lose votes.

If you forget why you were elected -- health care, financial services, energy policy and immigration reform -- you will lose votes.

Tonight proved conclusively that we're not going to turn out just because you have a (D) next to your name, or because Obama tells us to. We'll turn out if we feel it's worth our time and effort to vote, and we'll work hard to make sure others turn out if you inspire us with bold and decisive action.

The choice is yours. Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home. And you aren't going to make up the margins with conservative voters. They already know exactly who they're voting for, and it ain't you.

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CA-10 Results: Democrat Garamendi wins

post from Open Left - Front Page on 04 November 2009 12:32:20 AM. © Open Left - Front Page

California Lt. Governor John Garamendi has been declared the winner in the CA-10 special election.[...]

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Bookend

post from Talking Points Memo on 04 November 2009 12:29:00 AM. © Talking Points Memo

The Democratic victory in NY-23 provides an interesting bookend to what was unquestionably a disappointing night for Democrats. As I noted a few days ago, for the right-wingers behind the Hoffman candidacy, knocking out Scozzafava was the big prize. [...]

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NY-23: Hoffman (C) concedes

post from Daily Kos on 04 November 2009 12:26:54 AM. © Daily Kos

Now that Doug Hoffman has conceded, the only question is who to blame for his spectacular loss of a seat Republicans had held for 120 years.

Some teabaggers are already blaming the NRCC, because they chose the local popular candidate who would've held the seat for the GOP, and so they suck. Everyone knew that importing a rigid Glenn Beck-ideologue to a moderate northeastern Republican district was a sure-fire path to victory! We can assume Hoffman will be back next year, so maybe he'll 1) move into the district, and 2) maybe learn a thing or two about its needs before he runs again.

While I haven't seen it yet (too tired to look), I'm sure some establishment Republicans will blame the loss of a sure-fire hold to the outsiders who flooded in -- from Sarah Palin, to Tim Pawlenty, to Glenn Beck, to etc, etc.

But the real reason Hoffman lost? ACORN's ingenious broken bottle gambit.

It works every time.

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ncedes

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EU court bans crucifix in Italian schools

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 04 November 2009 12:18:00 AM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

This is a very big move by the European Union court. Though the court has been asserting itself on business issues such as competition, social issues have been less controversial. It's going to be interesting to see what new cases related to church and state come as a result of this. In this particular case it is somewhat understandable to accept the argument that the crucifix is part of the Italian identity (from a purely historical perspective) though it's harder to make the argument that the crucifix in classrooms today is much more than imposing a specific religion on students. Especially since their mandatory presence was made law by Mussolini.

There was uproar in Italy today over a ruling by the European court of human rights that the crucifixes that hang in most Italian classrooms are a violation of religious and educational freedoms.

The seven judges, whose decision could prompt a Europe-wide review of the use of religious symbols on public premises, said state schools had to "observe confessional neutrality".