American politics Archives - Page 16 of 18 - Kit O'Connell: Approximately 8,000 Words

DEA Chief Admits Marijuana Is Less Dangerous Than Heroin, But Won’t Reschedule

A sign in Venice, California advertises a medical marijuana doctor. (Flickr / Damian Gadal)

September 21, 2015

DEA Chief Admits Marijuana Is Less Dangerous Than Heroin, But Won’t Reschedule

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Despite ample evidence pointing to the therapeutic, non-addictive qualities of marijuana, the new head of the Drug Enforcement Agency wants to keep it legally classified alongside heroin and other highly addictive substances.

“If we come up with a medical use for it, that would be wonderful. But we haven’t,” declared Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, in a Sept. 5 interview with Fox News.

This surprising denial of medical science came in response to a question posed by James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for the network. He asked Rosenberg whether it was time to remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, considering two of the past three presidents of the United States have admitted to using the substance recreationally.

Is The US Involved In 134 Acts Of War Or 0?

U.S. Army Soldiers from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team engage in a firefight in Buhriz, Iraq, March 14, 2007. (Flickr / U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Stacy L. Pearsall)

September 11, 2015

Kit

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Is The US Involved In 134 Acts Of War Or 0?

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The United States could be fighting in dozens of conflicts around the world or none at all, depending on how one defines “war” or “conflict.” And despite repeated failures of U.S. military intervention to create global stability, American troops continue to be sent into more nations and more battles, usually without congressional approval.

Timothy McGrath, writing in September for MintPress News, made the claim that the U.S. is fighting between zero and 134 wars, depending on the definition of the word “war.”

The notion that the U.S. is involved in zero acts of war hinges on the premise that the country hasn’t officially declared war — with formal congressional approval — since 1942.

Big Ag Is Big Money For Congress: Monsanto Spends $2.5M Lobbying In 2015

During a German march against the Agribusiness giant Monsanto, a woman carries a NO MONSANTO sign illustrated with a bee. (Flickr / Die Grünen Kärnten)

August 26, 2015

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Big Ag Is Big Money For Congress: Monsanto Spends $2.5M Lobbying In 2015

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Monsanto spends millions of its billions of dollars in annual revenue on lobbying and hiring some of Washington’s most notorious firms to ensure that laws continue to favor the agribusiness giant’s profits.

OpenSecrets.org, a project of the Center For Responsive Politics, reported that, as of July 21, Monsanto had already spent over $2.5 million dollars on lobbying this year. The corporation is on track to meet or beat last year’s 2014 spending total, which reached $4,120,000. Yet it doesn’t appear to be on pace to break the record the company set for itself in 2008, when it spent $9 million on lobbying.

At the federal level, Monsanto’s millions are spent to ensure Congress passes laws that work in the company’s favor. The corporation lobbied heavily for the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, better known to food safety activists as the “DARK Act,” which would overrule hundreds of local laws regulating the labelling of foods containing genetically-modified ingredients with a still undeveloped USDA program.

Almost One-Third Of Children Live In Poverty In ‘The Richest Nation In The World’

File: A young girl in a pink raincoat. Chicago, October 1, 2011. (Flickr / Stefanie Seskin)

August 25, 2015

Kit

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Almost One-Third Of Children Live In Poverty In ‘The Richest Nation In The World’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The financial collapse of 2008 and the absence of true economic recovery in the years since has left millions more children in poverty than before the recession. About 22 percent of American children live in poverty, and even that figure may not fully account for all those who are struggling.

According to the annual Kids Count Data Report, which ranks states based on the well-being of children living there, about 3 million more children were impoverished in 2013 than in 2008, an increase of 3 percent that brings the total number of children in poverty to 16,087,000. Following the report’s release, Al-Jazeera America and The Associated Press noted:

Iran Has 0 Nukes While Israel’s 80 Nuclear Weapons Are Real Threat To Peace

Dozens of missiles await use at an Israeli Defense Forces training day. November 24, 2015. (Flickr / Israel Defense Forces)

August 21, 2015

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Iran Has 0 Nukes While Israel’s 80 Nuclear Weapons Are Real Threat To Peace

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

While the Iran deal is often touted as the only possible solution to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, both U.S. and Israeli intelligence reports suggest that country never intended to build a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, Israel, one of its regional neighbors, possesses not only 80 functioning nuclear warheads but also the capability to use them.

Israel’s nuclear weapons program probably dates back to the 1950s, when U.S. surveillance flights first detected suspicious activity, according to a report from Bruce Riedel, a columnist with Al-Monitor, a news site offering analysis of events in the Middle East.

“President John F. Kennedy pressed Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion very hard not to proceed with a weapons program, arguing it would precipitate a regional nuclear arms race,” noted Riedel. “Under pressure from Kennedy, Israel agreed to American inspections of its French-supplied Dimona reactor, but then systematically blocked any serious inspection process.”

Despite Support By Experts, Marijuana Still Unavailable To Most Veterans With PTSD

A sign in Venice, California advertises a medical marijuana doctor. (Flickr / Damian Gadal)

July 20, 2015

Kit

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Despite Support By Experts, Marijuana Still Unavailable To Most Veterans With PTSD

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Thousands of American veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and they’re forced to endure the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs while an effective treatment with few side effects, medical marijuana, remains illegal and inaccessible to most.

A 2012 study from the Veterans Administration estimated that as much as 20 percent of veterans of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD. Among these veterans, the suicide rate is 50 percent higher than the national average and PTSD is a major contributing factor, according to a 2015 study by the National Institute of Mental Health. Nick Wing and Matt Ferner, writing in The Huffington Post, suggested VA doctors typically treat veterans with a combination of therapy and a selection of dozens of pharmaceutical drugs approved for the treatment of the often debilitating condition. Missing from that list, according to their report, is one particular treatment that’s made a difference in many lives: cannabis.

“[T]the government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug with no medical value and explicitly prohibits VA doctors from recommending marijuana,” Wing and Ferner wrote last month. The federal scheduling system is meant to classify dangerous drugs by weighing their risks versus their potential benefit to humanity. Under this system, marijuana, which studies have repeatedly demonstrated to be relatively safe and carry almost no risk of addiction, is considered more dangerous than heroin or amphetamines.