Archive for May 3rd, 2009
EUGENE, Ore. – Mayor Kitty Piercy has set pro-pot Web sites buzzing with her decision to attend the Global Marijuana March rally here this Saturday.
Piercy will issue a formal declaration marking April 30 through May 6 as “Medical Marijuana Awareness Week.”
“Eugene has always been a place for ? for lack of a better word ? marijuana enlightenment,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws based in Washington, D.C. “But for a sitting mayor to come out and be this public about it is really rare.”
The mayor’s appearance at the rally is hardly an endorsement of legalizing marijuana, however.
“I’m not weighing in on that, and this is not me leading any cause,” Piercy told The Register-Guard newspaper. “But I’m more than willing to state my support for the legal, medical use of marijuana.”
It was local medical marijuana patient Jim Grieg who persuaded Piercy to issue the proclamation. Grieg, who serves on the board of directors for the local chapter of the marijuana reform group, was able to get Piercy to declare a “Medical Marijuana Awareness Day” for Eugene back in 2007. Getting her to endorse a week wasn’t too much of a stretch.
“It didn’t take a whole lot of convincing,” Grieg said. “I think she’s really shown some leadership qualities by doing this.”
Grieg, 57, is one of about 21,000 people in Oregon who can legally use medicinal marijuana. He suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and uses a wheelchair. Oregon and 12 other states allow people to possess, use and grow marijuana if their doctor recommends it for debilitating symptoms.
The Lane County Board of Commissioners declined to follow Piercy’s lead in attending the rally, Grieg said. “It’s an issue they didn’t want to get into.”
For Piercy, however, that issue is somewhat personal. She has a friend who uses medical marijuana to help relieve symptoms of ovarian cancer. She realizes some people might not like her public stance on the matter. But, she said, “just because there are differing opinions doesn’t mean you should run away from something you support.”
The rally in Eugene is one of more than 250 planned in cities around the world.
Source: www.oregonlive.com
Congress is moving closer to a showdown over the largest expansion of government in modern U.S. history — a bill which would require virtually every single American to buy government-approved health insurance, whether they wanted it or not. And, in the process, that bill would feed all of your most confidential medical data into an enormous database, which could be used to take away your guns.
This is a bit complicated. But here’s where we are:
Once a year, the 1974 Budget Act allows Congress to pass a bill — solely for the purpose of balancing the budget — and that bill cannot be filibustered in the Senate. Hence, it can be passed with only fifty Democrat votes (plus the vice president), without any Republican support.
Now, that supposed “budget-balancing bill” is called the “reconciliation bill” — and it can only be created if the annual budget resolution mandates it.
Three weeks ago, the Senate considered its version of the annual budget resolution. Gun Owners of America asked you to oppose passage of the Senate version of the budget resolution for two reasons:
* First, although the Senate version of the bill did not contain language mandating the giant anti-gun database and the huge $10,000+ per person government health mandate, the Pelosi-devised House version did.
* Second, although Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) protested mightily that the Senate version did not mandate the anti-gun database and health mandate, GOA found out that Conrad intended all along to capitulate in House/Senate conference to the Pelosi language.
Now, the budget resolution has come back from conference, and guess what?
Budget Chairman Conrad stabbed us in the back, just as GOA thought he would. His actions meant that Senators didn’t have to go on record voting for gun control the first time around.
The conference report gives Senate and House Republicans until September to cave in and agree to pass the anti-gun database and $10,000+ health mandate. And, if they do not, the Left Wing Democratic leadership will pass their own bill with 50 Senate votes — and no Republicans.
And, incidentally, when we say “anti-gun database,” we mean that everything your kid told his pediatrician about whether you have a gun collection will be searchable by the government. And people with Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and other disorders will begin losing their gun rights just as quickly as veterans — who have seen the ramifications of being on a government database.
Although the next vote on this budget resolution will not be the final battle in this eight-month war, GOA is asking senators and representatives to vote against the sleazy, corrupt budget resolution conference report — scheduled for a Senate vote this Wednesday.
Incidentally, the one thing that the federal government can do to reduce health costs is to remove the anti-gun federal laws which prohibit more Americans from using firearms to defend themselves and their families.
ACTION:
Contact your senators and representative. Ask them to vote against the “fraud scheme” which the budget resolution conference report has become.
Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your legislators the pre-written e-mail message below.
You can also call them toll-free at 1-877-762-8762.
—– Pre-written letter —–
Dear
The budget resolution conference report would set the stage for legislation to require virtually every American to purchase government-approved health insurance. And it would use government control over health insurance to require providers to feed our most confidential medical data into an anti-gun government database.
When I say “anti-gun database,” I mean that everything a kid tells his pediatrician about his dad’s gun collection will be searchable by the government. And people with Alzheimer’s, ADHA, and other disorders will begin losing their gun rights just as quickly as veterans — who have seen the ramifications of being on a government database for the last decade.
The budget resolution was sold to the Senate under a lie. Senators were told that the Senate version contained no “reconciliation instructions” when, all along, Budget Chairman Kent Conrad intended to immediately capitulate in conference.
Please show that such underhanded tactics are unacceptable in the Congress. Please vote against the budget resolution conference report.
Sincerely,
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