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Today's
Stories
January 26
/ 27, 2008
Uri Avnery
Worse
Than a Crime
January 25,
2008
Douglas Valentine
Operation
Two-Fold: How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA
Patrick Cockburn
US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years: an Interview with
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
JoAnn Wypijewski
Down to the Wire in South Carolina
Heather Gray
Are We Seeing a Racial Shift in the South? Conversations with
South Carolina Voters
Marjorie Cohn
Senate Democrats Poised to Fold to Cheney on FISA
Erica Rosenberg
Environmentalists Out on a Limb: the Perils of Collaboration
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush Goes Nuclear
Robert Weissman
Reclaiming Economic Freedom
Laura Carlsen
Wild Cards: Mining the Hispanic Vote in Nevada
Stephen Lendman
Israeli Repression in the Hebron
Website of the Day
The FIX is In
January 24,
2008
JoAnn Wypijewski
Obama
as Anthologist of Uplift
Paul Craig
Roberts
President Hillary
Alexander Cockburn
Hillary Wants to Talk About Dirty Legal Dealings? Remember Her
Nursing Home Scam?
Kathleen Christison
One and Two State Solutions and the Myth of International Consensus
Jeff Halper
Power to the (Palestinian) People!
Stanley Heller
The Siege of Gaza is Broken
George Wuerthner
The Moronic Sport: ORVs on the Public Lands
Patrick Cockburn
Desperate Iraqi Farmers Turn to Opium
Jeff Sher
Just How "Good" is Your Health Insurance?
Patrick Irelan
Musharraf, the Steadfast Ally?
Charles Modiano
Restoring the Anti-War King
Website of
the Day
An Illustrated History of Trepanation
January 23,
2008
David Rosen
The
Great Disappearing Act: the Presidential Candidates and the Politics
of Sex
David Isenberg
Is
It Really So Hard to Believe That Iran Stopped Its Nuclear Weapons
Program?
Farzana Versey
Hillary's
Harem
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Empire That Must Be Obeyed
Alan Farago
Where Did All the Good Times Go?
Allan Nairn
Indonesian Intelligence Service Threatens to Kill Human Rights
Activist
Kenneth Couesbouc
Another Turn of the Screw
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How the West was Re-Sold
Michael Donnelly
Obama Strikes Back
Norman Solomon
The Power of Love
Website of the Day
Rafah Today
January 22,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Farewell
to Old Economic Nostrums
JoAnn Wypijewski
King Day in Columbia, South Carolina
Al Giordano
Divide and Conquer Politics: How the Clinton Campaign Armed a
Black-Latino Time Bomb in Nevada
Felice Pace
Power Politics in the Klamath: Water, Dams and Salmon
Paul Wolf
Bolívar's Sword
Robert Weissman
Deregulation and the Financial Crisis
Dave Lindorff
The Bush Dollar Trap
Marjorie Cohn
Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction
Richard Neville
Keeping Shakespeare in a Box
Don Fitz /
Zaki Baruti
St. Louis Mayor Booed Off MLK Platform
Ben Terrall
Cindy Sheehan and the Virtues of Divisiveness
Sam Husseini
Stoning Martin Luther King, Jr.
Website of
the Day
Defend the Mapuche!
January 21,
2008
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Playing
the Race Card
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Deferring Dreams, Delusions of Democracy
Pam Martens
How Wall Street Blew Itself Up
David Macaray
Labor's Grim Dilemma: Do We Need a Labor Party?
Uri Avnery
Look Who's Talking
Omar Barghouti
Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide
Joe DeRaymond
Protest and Trial in D.C.
B.R. Gowani
Why Islam Should Tolerate Images
Shepherd Bliss
The False U.S. Economy
Jean-Guy Allard
Philip Agee Versus the CIA
Dan Bacher
Leaping Steelhead!
Website of
the Day
Destroyed
By a Rising Flood
January 19
/ 20, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Campaign in Black and White
Saul Landau
Good Time Charlie's War
China Hand
Endgame for Pakistan?
Conn Hallinan
Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About?
Ron Jacobs
No Retreat
Dave Lindorff
A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess
Andy Worthington
Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture
Paul Armentano
What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think
Seth Sandronsky
High Crimes and Economics
Michael Donnelly
Dodging Ecocide
Patrick Irelan
The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki
Martha Rosenberg
The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit
Sherwood Ross
Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade
David Michael
Green
So You Want to be My President, Eh?
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: Under House Protection
Daniel Gross
Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King
Peter N. Carroll
In Memory of Milton Wolff
Susie Day
Croakin' on Hudson
Paul Krassner
Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu
Poets' Basement
Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of the Day
Rocky Mountain
Blues
January 18,
2008
Allan Nairn
Killing
Civilians, Carefully
Ralph Nader
When
the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill?
Joanne Mariner
Terrorism and Preventative Detention
Alan Farago
The Stimulus and the Meltdown
P. Sainath
Pity the Brahmins
R.F. Blader
Beyond Steinem's Feminism
Andy Worthington
A Letter from Guantánamo
John Jonik
Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health
Brian McKenna
Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan
Women's Prison
Daoud Kuttab
This Time Next Year?
Website of the Day
Those South Carolina Voting Machines
January 17,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Leader
and Vassal
Christopher
Brauchli
The FBI's Bills Come Due
Robert Fantina
Leadership, Bush and the New York Times
Patrick Irelan
Eternal War
Paul A. Moore
When the Rich Pay No Taxes
Stephen Lendman
Institutionalized Spying on Americans
Beena Sarwar
Bhutto and the "State Within a State"
Walter Brasch
Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment
Brenda Norrell
Bush Legacy in Texas Sours
Adam Federman
End of the Left?
Website of the Day
Democrats for Romney
January 16,
2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Return
of the Native
Franklin Lamb
The Bombing at Qarantina
Julian Sanchez
David Weigel
Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?
Sharon Smith
Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope?
Allan Nairn
Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation
Andy Worthington
A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo
Richard Behan
Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Website of the Day
Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!
January 15,
2008
Andrea Peacock
Breach
of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing
Poison Into Libby's Wounds
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy
and the Prospects of War with Iran
Joe Bageant
Getting Out the Bling Vote
Ralph Nader
The Candidate Taboos
John Ross
Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified?
Peter Morici
The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy
Beena Sarwar
Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade
Robert Weissman
Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought
Binoy Kampmark
Going Tata in India
Dave Zirin
Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame
Website of
the Day
David Lynch on the iPhone
January 14,
2008
Ishmael Reed
Ma
and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man
Roger Morris
Burials in the Sind
Uri Avnery
The
Hands of Esau
Mike Whitney
Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package
Allan Nairn
General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million
Corpses
William Blum
Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us
Alan Farago
A Subprime Wake Up Call
David Macaray
Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time?
Eva Liddell
Getting Drunk with Obama
Zoe Blunt
Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons
Website of the Day
Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies
January 12
/ 13, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
How
the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian
Deaths
Saul Landau
60
Years of Empire
Corey D. B. Walker
Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual
Col. Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot
Eric Toussaint
The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global
Ron Jacobs
Television, Murder and Vietnam
Fred Gardner
The People vs. Christopher James Chakos
Stan Cox
Don't Take That Pill!
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Warfare State
Ramzy Baroud
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Joseph Grosso
The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites
David Díaz-Arias
Imagining An/Other Latin American Left
Stacey Warde
Before We Move On ...
Dan Bacher
Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt
Michael Dickinson
Georgie in Jesusland
Website of
Weekend
CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices
January 11,
2008
Dave Lindorff
Did
Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold
Voting Machines
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Escape from War and Unemployment
Andy Worthington
Six Years of Guantánamo
Kenneth Couesbouc
Banking on Thin Ice
Jeff Ballinger
Inside the Vienna Consensus
Christopher
Brauchli
Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns
Andrew Silverstein
Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem
Marwan Bishara
Bush in the Middle East
Robert Weissman
The First Amendment Gone Wild
Patrick Irelan
Damn the Small Boats!
Website of
the Day
Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She
Loses
January 10,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Now
Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards
Bob Wing
Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom
Bradley
Michael Donnelly
White Women Gone Wild?
David Macaray
Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions
China Hand
Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries?
Rannie Amiri
Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya?
Website of the Day
Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident
January 9,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
Dave Lindorff
The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation
John Chuckman
Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada
James Bovard
Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006
Alan Farago
As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic
Russell Mokhiber
Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday?
William S. Lind
Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq
Peter Morici
Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters
Josh Reubner
Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment
Mike Roselle
The Pursuit of Happiness
Website of the Day
Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH
January 8,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old)
Russell Mokhiber
The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative
Robert Fantina
The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz
Dave Zirin
Butts on Parade
Shamako Nobel
I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop
John Ross
Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves
Brenda Norrell
Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security
Laura Carlsen
Why Bolivia Matters
Patrick Irelan
Remember the Maine!
Evelyn J. Pringle
The Holes in Bush's FDA
Jonathan M.
Feldman
After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace
Movement
Michael Dickinson
Playing Soldier
Website of
the Day
Sean Hannity on the Run!
January 7,
2008
Chris Floyd
There
Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities
John Blair
Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana
Uri Avnery
The Case of the White Bird
Andy Worthington
Who Are the Gitmo Saudis?
Binoy Kampmark
Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court
David Macaray
Women on Strike
Ralph Nader
Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood
Michael Donnelly
It's the War Vote(s), Stupid!
Ron Jacobs
Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough?
Gideon Levy
The Hostile President
Dave Lindorff
A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb
Website of
the Day
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
January 5 /
6, 2008
Douglas Valentine
Good
Guys in Black Hoods
Kevin Young
The
US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq
Richard Rhames
Saddam
Who?
Saul Landau
Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory
Marc Lynch
Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing
Robert Fantina
Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War
Donna Volatile
Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr.
Jelle Bruinsma
Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands
Bob Sutcliffe
Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist
Harvey Wasserman
Anti-Nuclear Renaissance
Missy Beattie
Why Obama Can't Save Us
David Swanson
Remembering the Separation of Powers
Jacob Hornberger
The Importance of the Padilla Case
Shepherd Bliss
Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms
Ron Jacobs
Bleeding Kansas
Poets' Basement
Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint
January 4,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Good Night in Iowa
Jonathan Cook
War Crimes Airbrushed from History
Paul Craig Roberts
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
Stan Goff
Ron Paul's Monkeywrench
Dave Lindorff
Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
To Pindi Station
Allan Nairn
U.S. Elections Over Before They Began
Joshua Frank
The Failures of Sectarianism
Peter Morici
Economy on the Skids
Mary McInnis
Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease
Website of the Day
The Return of Obama Girl
January 3,
2008
Fatima Bhutto
Farewell
to Wadi Bua
Pam Martens
The
Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos
Joanne Mariner
The Presidential Candidates and Torture
Zoltan Grossman
Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the
Web
David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
Norman Solomon
Edwards Reconsidered
Nikolas Kozloff
Return of the Faux Liberal
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus
Martha Rosenberg
Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick
Russell Means
This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah
Lands
Website of the Day
WolfQuest
January 2,
2008
Jeff Taylor
The
Left and Ron Paul
M. Shahid Alam
The Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto: a Pakistani Tragedy
Gary Leupp
Madness Compounding Madness: Calls for Intervention in Pakistan
Paul Craig Roberts
Criminals with Badges
Heather Gray
Georgia's Racist Death Penalty
Fred Gardner
and Shobhit Arora
Dr. Strangelove's Nemesis
David Macaray
Labor Unions and Taft-Hartley
Benjamin Dangl
Fear and Loathing in Bolivia
January 1,
2008
Iain A. Boal
City
of Disappearances
B. R. Gowani
Benazir's Death in Crisistan
Shahid Mahmood
Bhutto and the Press
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Old Injustices Endure: From Crack Sentences to Racial Profiling
Harvey Wasserman
Taking Leonard Peltier to Iowa: the Moral Low Point of the Clinton
Era
John Ross
2008, Already a Year to Forget
Website of the Day
The Thrill is Gone: BB and Gladys
December 31,
2007
Alexander Cockburn
Goodbye
2007 and Good Riddance!
Tariq Ali
Pakistan, the Aftermath
Liaquat Ali Khan
The Perfidy of Pakistan's Rulers
Wajahat Ali
After Bhutto, a Nuclear Pakistan?
Robert Fisk
Who Killed Bhutto?
Ajai Sahni
Myths and Realities About Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan's Dark
Future
Marwan Bishara
You Say Talk, I Say Attack: The Middle East and the US Presidential
Election Campaigns
Uri Avnery
The Beilin Syndrome
Mark T. Harris
Does This Happen in Canada?
Brenda Norrell
Resistance and Censorship
Website of the Day
A People United Will Never Be Defeated
December 29
/ 30, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Options
in America: Kill Yourself or Have a Baby
Tariq Ali
Indignation and Fear Stalk Pakistan
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
My Encounter with Benazir Bhutto
Gary Leupp
The U.S. and Pakistan After 9/11: Blowback from an Unholy Alliance
China Hand
Pakistan Stares Into the Abyss
Jacob Hornberger
Stop Medddling in Pakistan
John Chuckman
Pakistan and the Failure of Quick-Fix Politics
Missy Beattie
Evaluating Bush with the Bhutto Corruption Standard
Ralph Nader
Who Will Take the Next Step?
Fidel Castro
There Hasn't Been a Day in My Life When I Haven't Learned Something
Robert Fantina
The Sham of Homeland Security
Greg Moses
Beauty from the Heart of Texas
Catherine Lutz
What We Can Not See: Art and Bombing
Kristin Van
Tassel
Seeing in the Dark
Kim Nicolini
Redacted: Brian DePalma's Scream of Outrage
Phyllis Pollack
Keith Richards Runs With Rudolph Once More
Poets' Basement
Landau, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Driving Karachi in Search of the Perfect Naan
December 28,
2007
Farzana Versey
The
Complex Electra
Wajahat Ali
A
Pakistani Requiem
Binoy Kampmark
Death in Rawalpindi: Bhutto and Her Legacy
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Not Dead Yet: The Pakistan People's Party Still Survives
Anthony DiMaggio
Turkey's Bombing of Iraq
Ray McGovern
Creeping
Fascism
Jim Goodman
Biofuels, the Biggest Scam Going
Ron Jacobs
Transcending the Colonizer's History: Iran, a People Interrupted
Russell Hoffman
Mini-Nukes by Toshiba
John Murphy
Greens Gone Wild
Website of the Day
Guiliani Campaign Official: "Only Rudy Can Defeat the Muslims"
December 27,
2007
Dilip Hiro
A
Tragedy Foretold: Will Bhutto's Death be a Boost for Her Party?
Murtaza Shibli
Who Killed Bhutto?
Stephen Soldz
Fallujah,
the Information War and U.S. Propaganda
Bill Quigley
Locked
Outside the Gates
Paul Craig Roberts
The Great American Lock-Up
Omer Subhani
Killing Bhutto: What Happens Next in Pakistan?
Marjorie Cohn
The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go?
Allan Nairn
Cataclysm By Money Whim
Jacob G. Hornberger
Smearing Ron Paul: Shame on the NYT
Norman Solomon
Channeling Suze Orman
Patrick Irelan
Rumsfeld Spills the Ink
Ben Tripp
Pass the Razor Blades
Website of the Day
Quagmire, For What It's Worth
December 26, 2007
Charles Tripp
From
One Saddam to Fifty
Paul Armentano
No-Knock, You're Dead
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon in Search of a Government
Stanley Heller
Brzezinski and Charlie Wilson's War
John Walsh
Two Unreasonable Men
Martha Rosenberg
The Strange Career of Scott Gottlieb
Norman Madarasz
Bolivia Amends New Constitution and Faces Mutiny from Within
Website of
the Day
Cockburn at the Battle of Ideas
December 25,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Conscience
and Empire
December 24,
2007
Andrea Peacock
A
Dark Ride on the Border
Tariq Ali
Thinking of Edward Said
Uri Avnery
Help! A Ceasefire!
Jill Jameson
Burma is Not Back to Normal: A Trip from Rangoon to Mae Sot
Steve Melendez
Russell Means Goes to Washington
Mike Whitney
The Big Fix
Chuck Munson
Not Getting It About New Orleans
John Walsh
Clueless Crusaders
Farzana Versey
Tony Blair and the Hawking of Religion
Richard Neville
Dreaming of a White House Christmas
Website of the Day
Back in the USSR
December 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Mike
Huckabee's Ascending Chariot
Ralph Nader
Politics
and Profits: How the Oil Cartel Gets Its Way
Andy Worthington
Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons
in Afghanistan
Ahmad Faruqui
The Comedian of Pakistan
Bill Moyers
Society on Steroids
Rev. William
E. Alberts
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Timothy J. Freeman
From Kant to Lennon: Can War Really be Over?
Anthony DiMaggio
Democrats Continue to Capitulate on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Molecule of the Year, Cannabiodiol
Paul Krassner
Enhanced Hazing Techniques
Seth Sandronsky
17 Years of Meanness: Repealing California's Three Strikes Law
William Loren
Katz
Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters: Recalling the Battle of Lake
Okeechobee
Michael Dickinson
In the Dungeon of the Zabita
Ron Jacobs
Why Leon Russell Still Matters
David Vest
Doyle Bramhall's "Is It News?"
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
George W. Hates Santa
December 21,
2007
John Ross
New Massacres Loom in Mexico
Jacob Hornberger
Nothing Can Morally Justify the Invasion of Iraq
Dick J. Reavis
A
Way Out of the Newspaper Abyss
Jeff Cohen
and Norman Solomon
The 2007 P.U.-litzer Prizes
Peter Morici
Business as Usual as Recession Looms
Jack McCarthy
Let Us Now Praise Judith Regan (Even If She Did Sleep with Bernie
Kerik)
Raúl Zibechi
Sex and Revolution
Steve Early
How the Presidential Candidates Made Me an Atheist
David Macaray
Union Aftermath
Patrick Bond
Zuma, the Center-Left and the Left-Left in S. Africa
Lakota Freedom Delegation
A Declaration of Independence from the USA
Website of
the Day
Solomon v. Beck: Tale of the Tape
December 20,
2007
David Rosen
Mitt
Romney's Secret Life as a Pornographer
Alan Farago
The
Huckster and the Wreckage: Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage
Crisis
Laura Carlsen
Standing Up to NAFTA
Ashley Dawson
The Return of the Bread Riot
Wayne Smith
and Jennifer Schuett
Cuba Changes, US Policy Stagnates
Website of
the Day
How to Talk to a FoxNews Reporter
December 19,
2007
Saul Landau
Is
the NIE Bush's Watergate?
Paul W. Lovinger
Hillary the Hawk
Norman Solomon
The Mad Corporate World of Glenn Beck
Dave Zirin
George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice
Marjorie Cohn
Bush Still Spinning Iranian Nukes
Sen. Russell
Feingold
The Iraq War is Exhausting Our Nation
Sonja Karkar
A Christmas Reflection on Palestine
Anthony Papa
Open the Drug Gulags
Christopher Ketcham
Pave the Holy Lands with Good Intentions
Davey D
Britney's Little Sister is Pregnant: Should We Blame Hip Hop?
Website of
the Day
When Republicans Use the F-Word on TV
December 18,
2007
R. F. Blader
The
Politics of Teen Pregnancy
George Wuerthner
Gunning for Wolves in Idaho
Steven Higgs
Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped?
Vijay Prashad
Encounters with Ghadar
David Macaray
The Free Rider Problem
Ralph Nader
Nine Books That Make a Difference: a Reading List for the Holidays
Eva Liddell
Privatizing War Abroad, Invading Privacy at Home
Martha Rosenberg
While the Bodies are Still Warm: Drugs, Shrinks and Shooters
Dave Lindorff
When Impeachment is Out of Print
Peter Morici
The Consequences the Trade Deficit
Website of
the Day
Ron Paul: How Fascism Will Come to America
December 17,
2007
Mike Whitney
Staring
Into the Abyss
Tom Barry
Planning
the War on Immigrants
Uri Avnery
A
Gaza Masada?
Greg Moses
Crossing the Line in Texas
Allan Nairn
Terrorism; Counter-
Terrorism: Excuses for Murder
Patrick Bond
South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers
Stephen Lendman
Police State America
Charles Jonkel
Grizzly Right of Way
Laray Polk
An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza
Stephen Fleischman
Pawns in Their Game
December 15
/ 16, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
People's Penny for the Magna Carta
Howard Zinn
Bomb After Bomb
Standard Schaefer
The Greening of Big Tobacco
Raymond J.
Lawrence
Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas
Alan Farago
Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine
Saul Landau
Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists
Jenna Orkin
Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the
Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up
Ahmad Samih
Khalidi
Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct
Robert Fantina
Politics By Photo-Op
Missy Comley
Beattie
Resistance Amid the Ruins
Ramzy Baroud
Of Mormons and Muslims
James L. Secor
A Vision for China's Future
Elijah Wald
Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten
Website of
the Weekend
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support
December 14,
2007
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him
John Ross
Iraqi
Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax
Jacob Hornberger
Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened?
Allan Nairn
"Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes
Dave Zirin
The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners
Dave Lindorff
The First Cut is the Deepest
Misty MacDuffee
Toxic Grizzlies
Ben Terrall
What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?
Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi
Prerequisites for Peace
Website of the Day
Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"
December 13,
2007
Paul Craig
Roberts
Shrinking
the Dollar from the Inside-Out
Mike Whitney
Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding
Ron Jacobs
Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy
Norman Solomon
The USA's Human Rights Daze
Peter Morici
The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch
Sandy Mayes
Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia
Franklin Lamb
The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling?
Jacob Hornberger
Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It
Nadim Rouhana
An Interloper in My Own Land
Dave Zirin
On Pigskin and Petrol
Website of the Day
Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support!
December 12, 2007
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Nairn
US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian
Phones
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Farago
How Sprawl Eats Its Young
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McGovern
Torture, Lies and Videotape
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts
Evan
Jones
The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell
Doom for the US Farm Belt
James
Petras
An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers
Joel
Hirschorn
The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine
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Frank
Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention
Sherry
Wolf
Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul
Dan
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Survey of a Fish Graveyard
Website
of the Day
Men Eating Bugs
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Weekend
Edition
January 26 / 27, 2008
Ross v. Raging
Wire
Employer's
Right to Fire Workers Held Sacred by California Supreme Court
By FRED GARDNER
The boss's sacred right to fire a worker
supercedes the worker's legal right to fire up a medicinal herb
in his own house on his own time, the California Supreme Court
has ruled in the case of Ross v. RagingWire. The Court had to
violate its own logic in People v. Mower, a 2002 ruling that
defined physician-approved cannabis users as equal to -"no
more criminal than"- prescription-drug users.
Nobody knows how many California
workers have been fired or threatened with termination or not
hired in the first place because they tested positive for marijuana.
Gary Ross was fired after testing positive by a company called
RagingWire Telecommunications. He sued for discrimination, arguing
that he had a doctor's approval, was using legally under California
law, and had never been impaired at work. RagingWire argued that
they had a right to fire Ross for violating the federal marijuana
prohibition.
The Sacramento Superior Court and the Third Appellate District
Court found for RagingWire. Ross took his case to the California
Supreme Court, represented by Sacramento defense specialist Stewart
Katz and Joe Elford of Americans for Safe Access. On Jan. 24
a 5-2 majority issued its judgment for RagingWire, written by
Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, who should know better -her
husband, David Werdegar, MD, used to run San Francisco General
Hospital.
Werdegar's key point is that
Prop 215's protections were very narrow. "The proponents
of the Compassionate Use Act consistently described the proposed
measure to the voters as motivated by the desire to create a
narrow exception to the criminal law." The proponents she
refers to are/is Bill Zimmerman, the campaign manager installed
by East Coast masterminds to replace Dennis Peron as their price
for funding a signature drive. Zimmerman wrote ballot arguments
that weakened the initiative, presenting it merely as a defense
in court instead of a bar to prosecution. Werdegar's ruling
acknowledges that "the measure's opponents (her
italics) argued the act would 'make it legal to smoke marijuana
in the workplace," but adds, amazingly, "the argument
was obviously disingenuous [it was written by the Attorney General
of California, Dan Lungren] because the measure did not purport
to change the laws affecting public intoxication with controlled
substances... Proponents reasonably countered the argument by
observing that, under the measure, 'police officers can still
arrest for marijuana offenses. Proposition 215 simply gives those
arrested a defense in court."
Attorney Joe Elford of Americans
for Safe Access is not contemplating an appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. "This is a purely state-law case," he says.
"We had two causes of action under state law. The state's
highest court should be
determining state law. The US Supreme Court really has no business
interfering in state law."
ASA has been working with State Sen. Mark Leno on legislation
that would prevent employers from discriminating against medical
marijuana users. February 22 is the deadline for bills to be
introduced. Anybody who thinks Gov. Schwarzenegger would sign
such a bill -even with safety-sensitive positions excluded- can
place a bet with fred@plebesite.com.
Attorney Bill Panzer says that
the state Supreme Court ruling for RagingWire "brings to
mind my old law school professor who used to say, 'No case is
ever decided on the law. First the judges decide what they want
to do. Then they find the reasoning."
We'll take potshots at Werdegar's
ruling in another column. Before he leaves the stage, let's hear
from Gary Ross. This interview was conducted the morning after
his day in court, Nov. 7, 2007. He's now working as a camp superintendent
for a Sacramento non-profit.
Ross: It's minimum wage, but that's not my frustration. I'm used
to the corporate world where we're working on multi-million dollar
contracts and if we run over budget we just get more money. Here,
we need to change a light bulb we put in a request and hope it's
approved. But I like being out here on 25 acres.
PotShots: How did you get injured?
Ross: I was working on an airplane and I took a fall and landed
right on my tailbone. I fractured two of the transverse processes
in my lower back.
PS: When was this?
Ross: I was in the Air Force from 1979 to 1983. I was an E-3.
PS: What were you medicating with originally?
Ross: Whatever was the popular medication for the VA at the time.
Soma was popular for a while until they found it highly addictive
and took it away. Flexoril. Valium. Percocet. Demarol. Vicodin.
They finally landed me on Vicodin. That was their drug of choice
for me. They gave me five milligrams plus 375 mg of aspirin.
So if I need to take three or four of them I might be taking
way too much aspirin. So there I was trying to solve a medical
problem and I'm creating a new one for myself ...
PS: Was the injury the reason you left the Air Force?
Ross: No. The military wasn't
for me.
PS: So you came back to civilian life and what happened next?
Ross: My daughter was born just before I got out. I couldn't
find work in Sacramento so I started working as a janitor for
a base commissary up in Rapid City South Dakota -at Ellsworth
Air Force Base, where my father-in-law was stationed. After
a few months I ended up at the VA hospital because my back went
out. That's when I put in an application for a service-connected
disability. I was granted it and became eligible for vocational
rehabilitation, which is what started me going to college at
National College in Rapid City. That's how I got into the computer
industry.
When I graduated I got a job with Compucom, which is a Compac-
authorized reseller, and became certified. I was installing new
systems, fixing Compacs and IBMs. Then I got a job as a UNIX
administrator for a small company in Sacramento. And from there
I blossomed into a consultant. I had a real love for it.
PS: Where are you from originally?
Ross: Born in San Francisco,
grew up in San Bruno and Pacifica. When I was 14 my parents moved
to Sacramento.
PS: Do you have any other kids?
Ross: I have a son who's 21 who's in the Army right now. He's
stationed at Fort Knox. It won't be long before he gets in the
rotation to go overseas. Which scares the heck out of me. My
wife was killed in an auto accident this January.
PS: Sorry to hear that.
Ross: Twenty-four years. Don't know life without her. We went
everywhere together. She'd put up with all my multiple hospital
trips. You don't know how many times I've been in the hospital
for my back. But she never gave up on me...
PS: How did you find marijuana?
Ross: I went to see Dr. Tod Mikuriya... In '96 when the law passed
I said, 'Okay, let's see what's going to happen.' And I started
following the news. Of course, Dr. Mikuriya was all over the
news, he was battling McCaffrey. I did some research and found
that he'd been studying medical marijuana since 1965. So I said,
'This is the man I need to talk to.' I first saw him in 1999
and then saw him again for renewals. When I went back for a renewal
he remembered me very well. He was a sharp man. Then when my
case was filed in 2001 we had several discussions about it.
PS: How did getting approval to medicate with marijuana affect
your VA situation?
Ross: I didn't rush into the VA. Almost every doctor that I've
talked to about alternative medicine has always laughed in my
face.
PS: Let's get back to your
work history leading up to your hiring by RagingWire.
Ross: I was a consultant with Lucent Technologies in Alameda
as a 1099 employee for 18 months. Lucent was making all the hardware
for the dial-up communications for all the dotcoms. They were
leasing the equipment to the dotcom and when they started to
fail they were getitng all this equipment back and orders were
canceled. And they had revved up to build more equipment.
Lucent went from $68 a share to a dollar a share, so they were
starting to cut expenses and closing down offices, and the one
I was working in was one of them, so I started looking for another
job and I saw the RagingWire ad. I thought 'Okay, I'll become
a regular employee, get some stock options, spend more time with
my family.'
I had worked 18 months straight -took off one half day. At $110/hour
you work a lot but as a contract employee there's no sick time
no vacation. I was on the road a lot and I stayed on a sailboat
in the estuary.
PS: Are you a boat person?
Ross: Yes, I am. I could sail all day.
PS: Where did you see the ad for RagingWire?
Ross: on Monster.com. There's about 10 interviews you have to
go through. Before you start the interview process you have to
be cleared by security. You fill out your application, give them
your social security number and they run a background check on
you. It can take months. I applied in January '01 and I started
in April or May. So, to go through that and get the job and
then four days later get suspended -that was frustrating.
When the HR manager was getting my package together and sending
me my offer letter and all that -along with the information where
to take the drug screen- she had a family emergency and had to
leave town. I received the package on the Friday before I was
supposed to start. I got the paperwork at 11 o'clock via Fed
Ex and I was at the clinic in downtown Sacramento by 12. I expected
the clinic to return the results that day.
There was nothing said, and I started on Monday and my assumption
was that there was no problem. Then on Thursday they called me
in and said that my results came back and I had a positive result
for THC.
That's when I explained that I had a doctor's recommendation,
and I showed it to them. They told me they were going to put
me on suspension until they could verify the information. I thought
that was it -they'd call Dr. Mikuriya and he'd validate my recommendation
and I'd go back to work.
The director of HR called me up on the following Thursday and
said "We've decided to terminate you." She gave me
a form saying I was being terminated for THC. She also presented
me with a five- or six-page document and said if I'd sign the
document they'd give me two weeks pay or something like that
and I would release them from all civil responsibility for terminating
me for THC in my system. So I told her I wasn't going to sign
it, I was going to take it home and think about it. I gave it
to my lawyer, Stewart Katz.
PS: Why do they drug test in the computer industry?... It's
not like you're operating heavy equipment. What's the concern?
Ross: I don't know. I've known companies that are straight-up
government contractors and they don't give drug tests. And I've
worked for others that had nothing to do with government and
they drug test. I've been wondering: how many state employees
use medical marijuana? Are federal dollars being withheld from
California because state employees use medical marijuana?
RagingWire doesn't have any government contracts. All they do
is house computers. They're a secure building -a colo [co-location],
like Quest or Level 5. They guarantee internet connection, electricity
and security. They don't actually touch the computers that are
in there. They don't go out and build anything, they're not a
manufacturer. The only thing the federal government might do
is put their computers in there, but I've never seen a government
computer in a colo.
PS: Why would a company use a colo insead of their own office
building? Why is it a superior place to house your computers?
Ross: The colo can guarantee you 99.9 percent up time. You'll
have electricity 24/7, you'll have a connection to the internet,
that kind of thing. Lucent has their own, IBM has their own.
Most of the dotcoms were run out of office buildings that didn't
have the facility to handle the server hook-ups. Their electricity
depended on the building superintendent. RagingWire had a good
idea and a good location, their problem was that they were way
at the end of the curve. The dotcom explosion was ending when
they got going. Office space had reached eight or nine dollars
a square foot in San Francisco and then it started coming down.
PS: What exactly were you going to be doing for RagingWire?
Ross: I was going to be an on-site repair person. So if your
company had computers at RagingWire and there was a problem that
required service and you didn't feel like sending your UNIX admin
up, I'd be able to take care of it. I was also taking care of
the servers.
PS: You must be highly skilled. There's lots of troubleshooters
out there but you were a troubleshooter for the troubleshooters.
Ross: That's correct. What I used to do -what I love to do- is,
I was the guy on the front line who would parachute into companies
and fix their problems and move on to the next. I was always
on an airplane somewhere. I always ended up at the end of the
week with one or two one-way tickets that I didn't use. Like
I'd fly into Cincinnati and when I finished instead of going
home they wanted me to go to Texas. And after I fixed the problem
in Texas they'd tell me there's a problem in Rhode Island. Because
I flew so much I always flew first class. I stayed in 4-star
hotels and ate at 4-star restaurants and I really enjoyed it.
PS: How was your back in this period? How often would you
have to take the drugs the VA had given you?
Ross: I was going through 180 Vicodin every three months. And
allthat aspirin, which was my big concern. A neighbor of mine
was taking pills to help his kidney but they were hurting his
liver. So he went to an herbologist and they detoxified his body
and taught him how to take care of himself rather than taking
medication and next thing you know his liver and his kidney were
both doing better. So I'm like 'Wait a minute.' As I did more
research I found out that pharmaceutical companies spend a lot
of time convincing the doctors and the future doctors that they've
got the cure-all. So they come out of college already brainwashed.
PS: In my experience they come out of college idealistic and
something happens during the course of their medical education
that changes their perspective. One factor is the huge debts
they've got coming out of med school. They want to make as much
money as possible as fast as possible.
Ross: Every other commercial on TV is for pills. It's a joke!
PS: When did you decide to fight RagingWire's decision to
terminate you?
Ross: Immediately.
PS: How did you find Stewart Katz?
Ross: I joined NORML. And I started going through their list
of lawyers and calling them. None of them asked me any questions,
they just turned me down. Either it wasn't their specialty or
there was nothing in it for them. Finally one of them referred
me to Stewart. He asked me questions and -this is nothing against
Stewart- he realized my salary was $74,000 and that there was
a potential for some money. I found out a couple of days ago
that if we prevail in civil court, then FEHA [the Fair Employment
and Housing Act] will pay Stewart's fees.
We filed the civil case and RagingWire immediately filed a demurrer
and that's what we're fighting in the Supreme Court -the demurrer.
[A demurrer is a statement by one party in a suit that even if
the facts as stated by the other side are true, they aren't sufficient
basis for a claim and therefore don't require a response.] If
we prevail then we get to proceed in civil court. There are no
facts in dispute here. In filing the demurrer they're agreeing,
"Yes, he's disabled. Yes, he was terminated for THC in his
system. But no, this did not create a tort [a legal wrong]."
PS: What questions did the judges ask and what do you think
their decision is going to hinge on?
Ross: California law vs. federal law.
PS: How does federal law come into it. Joe Elford says there's
no federal law prohibiting employment by someone with THC in
their system.
Ross: As I understand it, what people are calling "federal
law" is just a policy, not a law. The federal government
can generate policies all day long, but they can't shove them
down the throats of the states. We have dispensaries here in
California, we have counties passing out cards, we have cities
sanctioning growing. I thought I was safe. I thought this was
an intrastate issue, not interstate commerce.
I thought my case was cut-and-dry. California voted for it. California
employer. When I worked for a company in Denver called R Squared,
my office was at my home in California. The labor laws that applied
to me were California laws, not Colorado laws. They had a policy
that you didn't get paid vacation till you had worked for them
for one year. But in California, vacation accrues monthly. So
that's how mine was handled.
I don't know why the phrase "federal law" keeps popping
up now. Except for certain safety situations there is no federal
law requiring corporations to drug test their employees or to
terminate them if they're positive.
The Lauder case was interjected by the appellate court. The Lauder
case talks about absenteeism and poor performance based on drug
abuse and using medications -pharmaceuticals- without a doctor's
supervision. So it shouldn't apply. Respondent's counsel [RagingWire's
lawyer] kept coming back to the Lauder case and saying, "This
is going to be a bad employee." But Lauder says "if
he's not using it under a doctor's care..."
One justice kept coming back to California law and respondent's
counsel kept going "federal federal federal." She created
a scenario: "In California we apply FEHA to illegal immigrants
who, if they were to step out of California, they're going to
get thrown in jail or taken back to Mexico. But here we allow
them to work under California law..."
She asked respondent's counsel, "What would you do?"
And he pretty much said, "Ship 'em all back. Federal law
prevails. Get rid of them all." But if you were to nullify
FEHA for all these workers, what you're doing is giving employers
a free hand to abuse them.
Migrant workers have been here since the U.S. was formed. And
they weren't illegal till we created a line and said "This
is Texas." Realizing that immigration is not a problem that's
going to go away, we should deal with it and make it a better
situation for everybody. I have no problem with applying FEHA
to these people because I think it's in everybody's best interest.
Being on the selfish side, I don't want to pay five dollars for
a tomato.
PS: What do you make of
the coverage of your case?
Ross: I won't see the stories till tomorrow. When I was getting
ready to go on live TV last night, reporters from KTVU were beating
me up with "federal law." I asked them a question back:
"Where does federal law come in?" Their answer was
"Well, it's against the controlled substances act."
But that's a policy, not a law. If they had a law they would
have shut every dispensary down the second it opened. Everyone
[dispensary operators] would be in jail right now.
I don't know how the superior court changed its charter to quote
federal law. I thought this was going to be an open and shut
case in civil court. That's how naïve I was when this first
started. When ASA decided to join the team, that's when I started
to get a little nervous because it was starting to get bigger
than me. And now it's beyond me. I'm just a name on a piece of
paper at this point.
PS: What was the courtroom scene like?
Ross: All the benches full,
SRO in the overflow room, three cameras. Bill Pierce came up
and introduced himself and thanked me. They just raided his dispensary
[River City Patients Center in Sacramento.] They're trying to
scare everybody into submission. Sacramento is the feds' backyard.
In San Francisco there's a lot more liberals and the feds don't
have the cooperation of the police.
PS: They do have the cooperation of the police. San Francisco
looks better from afar.
Ross: How about Oakland?
PS: Three dispensaries left.The prohibitionists seem to be
in the midst of a big, orchestrated rollback on every level.
Ross: And it's not just medical marijuana. I was fighting a battle
up in Happy Camp, California. There was a coalition from Colorado
and their objective was to stop mining in all of the United States.
Now if these people had any experience and came in and actually
looked at the situation, they might have taken a different approach.
Instead they come into a little town and find an adversary and
bam there's a lawsuit and you've got to spend 20 thousand in
court.
There's two groups in Happy Camp. The old loggers and the Karuk
Indians. The Karuk Indians want all white men off the Klamath
River, open up all the dams, no rafters, nothing. They're fighting
with the Forest Service, trying to stop the miners, trying to
stop the Forest Service from cutting down the noxious weeds,
clearing fire trails. All this stuff is being fought all the
time there. The Karuk Indians don't have any revenue, so there's
these outside organizations coming into this town of eleven hundred
people and throwing millions of dollars around. And if they
win there they'll just move on to the next town.
They think the river's being
polluted. A better approach would be suction dredging -picking
up the sediment, filtering through the heavies and dropping the
light stuff. You're not adding anything to the river -sediment
is just debris that has washed into the river and shouldn't be
there. Why don't they put a barge at the end of the dredge and
let's move this sediment out? We're pulling lead, mercury, old
cars, all these things are being pulled out of the river by the
section dredgers. If they would embrace this, everybody would
benefit. But that requires work, attendance. They just want to
sit in a chair and give orders and have it all taken care of...
Some of these greenies don't admit that sometimes there are necessary
actions. They say nothing is ever necessary. It's just naivete.
I can't say they're stupid, they're just not applying their
intelligence. How do we get to the fire up there? It's called
a road.
PS: How long were you in Happy Camp?
Ross: I was up in the mountains
for about three years. I lost a second IT job because of this.
That's why I dropped out of IT. The company was called Applied
Materials. I applied for them and they didn't give a drug screen
and I didn't mention it. I interviewed for them, it was a three
or four month process, and they hired me and I started commuting
down to Santa Clara. After I'd been working for them two months
my supervisor called me in and said, "We have equipment
up in Sacramento and we would rather just have you stay in Sacramento
and work on that equipment."
I said, "Great, where's
it at?"
He said, "It's at this company called RagingWire."
I didn't say anything. He gave me all the security clearance
papaerwork I needed and made the phone call. I went up to Ragingwire,
went up to Security, got my access badge, read my scan, all
that stuff. Went into our cage where the computer equipment was
and within five minutes three security guards came in and physically
removed me from the building.
Then I called my employer and
they arranged my return to the building but with many stipulations.
After that RagingWire always took a half an hour to let me in
the building. I would go up to security and the security guy
would just walk out of the booth and come back in twenty minutes.
Just harassment.
So, I finally get in, get to
the booth and start working and they come into the cage and say
"You need to move your car, that spot is reserved for somebody."
There were no markings or anything. So I go out to move my car
and then it's another half hour to get back in. It takes me an
hour and a half to do 15 minutes work.
There were two other Applied
Materials employees who did their work in this cage. They would
come in the morning and do their work and go home. Well, Raging
Wire started calling Applied Materials and saying, "You
can't be in this building for any more than x number of hours
at a time." So my co-workers would have to work for an hour
or so and then leave the building. Come back. Work for an hour
or so and then leave the building.
After this Applied Materials
didn't want me in Sacramento any more. I went back to work in
Santa Clara. I had been driving four miles to work everyday,
now I've got to drive 120 miles to work every day because of
RagingWire. Next thing I know I'm getting no assignments. Nothing.
I'm not even getting a request to clear somebody's voice mail
or change a password or something. I'm just sitting there and
that was it, the job was over.
PS: Did they fire you or just drive you out by not giving
you anything to do?
Ross: They made me quit. I had been there five months. I liked
my boss and I felt bad that I was a problem to him.
PS: And then you went up to Happy Camp to get away from the
IT world?
Ross: Yeah. I just packed up my belongings and headed up to Happy
Camp. Bought me a tent and moved into the woods.
PS: Where were your wife and kids?
Ross: My wife was with me. My son was 18, I left him at the house.
PS: He must have liked that.
Ross: Oh, yeah. My daughter had moved out already. She and her
husband decided they wanted to move in, too, since we had all
kinds of room. And I moved up to a 16-by-32 military vinyl tent
which was extremely nice. I had solar panels, battery banks,
generators, converters, I had a big screen TV, a stereo system,
so I wasn't really roughing it but I was in a tent.
PS: Do you own some land there?
Ross: No. The mining act of 1872 says that if you're doing any
kind of mining you have the right to stay near your equipment.
PS: Were you mining for gold with heavy equipment?
Ross: No, just panning. Dave McCracken is the Placer gold expert.
He has a club up there. If you join the club it gives you access
to 60 miles of mining claims. The average age of the membership
is 68 years old. There's all sorts of guys up there trying to
reclaim their manhood, that kind of thing. There's ex-Marine
type guys. There's a few guys up there recovering from open heart
surgery.
PS: What's the attitude towards marijuana in that community?
Ross: It's like Humboldt County., everybody grows it. It's a
very liberal town. They do have a problem with methamphetamine.
So there's two sides of town. People who smoke marijuana don't
like methamphetamine and people who use methamphetamine don't
like marijuana. Not in every case but in general -they're completely
different worlds. There were two sides of Happy Camp. There's
the meth heads and the potheads.
What's neat about Happy Camp is they have a very high success
rate with high school students who progress onto higher education.
These people don't have to look at the register to tell you what
change to give. I want my grandkids to be that well educated.
PS: What do you attribute that to?
Ross: Small classroom sizes, good teachers, less administration.
The vice-principal, who also teaches, gets paid $60,000 in a
community where a nice place to live costs $450. Property in
town costs $20,000 an acre. Outside of town, 15 or 10. And there's
plenty of property. I was going to EMT training there. I was
rescued by the volunteer ambulance driver so I decided that I
was going to volunteer as an ambulance driver.
PS: Rescued? When?
Ross: May 14 '05. I decided I was smart enough to get down a
hill without a rope and I wasn't. I sprained my ankle. Happy
Camp rescued me and I decided, heck, what else am I going to
do in Happy Camp? So I volunteered for an ambulance driver. To
be an ambulance driver after one year you have to be an EMT-B.
So I was taking my course. I was in my third week of EMT training
the accident happened [in which Ross's wife died].
Virginia, who's one of the cashiers at the local grocery store
came out and drove my son and I out to the hospital. Frank, who
was the only paid ambulance driver, was at the scene. People
from the class were there. You know, small town pulling together
to help. It was just really tough. My wife worked at the pizza
parlor in town, everybody knew her. Happy Camp's the kind of
place where you stand on the street and half the cars going by,
people wave at you.
The locals don't take to outsiders
coming in and mining for gold because they think they're just
taking resources from the town. Some of the Indians were my friends.
No problem whatsoever. I'm a social person. I'm not even angry
at RagingWire. They just decided that this is their policy and
they're going to enforce it. Personally, I think they'd be better
off in Utah or some place.
Fred Gardner edits O'Shaughnessy's, the journal
of Cannabis in Clinical Practice. New issue out next week. Reach
him at fred@plebesite.com
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