Welcome to the latest semi-monthly HempFarm Report from http://www.HempFarm.org
I'll try to keep this short and sweet: The CD production and distribution companies of America have finally been officially nailed for price fixing and screwing the public (I'm sure you're all shocked). I could be wrong, but for some reason I don't recall hearing much about it from the TV News divisions of those same corporations, so I thought I'd pass the facts along and let you decide for yourselves (as I sometimes do).
The class action settlement orders the companies to pay $20 to anybody who bought a CD between 1995 and 2000.
That’s you, and you can fill out a claim through the link below.
I'm serious. . . Don’t say I’ve never done nothing for you.
There is, of course, a catch: Customer refunds are limited to a measly $44 million, so the more people that apply, the less we get. If it goes under $5 per person, they give the money to the non-profit music programs that are currently going to receive the bulk of the settlement ("CDs valued at $75 million").
The deadline is March 3, and more details are in the top story below. There are still millions of dollars available because nobody knows about it, and if they do, they're apparently worried about telling people and getting less money. This perfectly sums up the cause and effect of our corporate owned Mass Media: Nobody knows all the facts, and those who think they do are taught to screw their friends and grab whatever they can for themselves.
As usual, Bob Marley said it best: "When you gonna get some food, your brother got to be your enemy."
I could bore you with a rant, but nobody has time for that, so go grab your cash!
Fight the Power!
Zed B. Starkovich
http://www.HempFarm.org
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New Stuff:
Few Takers for CD Settlement Cash
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/CD_Settlement.html
By Renee Koury, Associated Press - 2/28/2003
Suppose someone was handing out $20 bills and almost nobody wanted one? That's roughly what's happening with a massive price-fixing settlement involving states and compact disc companies.
White House Was Warned of Shuttle Safety
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Bush_Warned_about_Shuttle.html
By Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters - 2/3/2003
A former NASA safety official wrote to President Bush last year to warn of "another catastrophic space shuttle accident," but Bush did not see the letter and the writer's plea was rejected, the White House said on Monday.
Meet the New Boss
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Meet_the_new_boss.html
By Matthew Callan, FreezerBox.com - 1/17/2003
On the surface, Kean is everything Kissinger is not. Surface is all that really matters, of course, since Bush shows little interest in going any deeper than that in his 9/11 probe. The administration waited well over a year to begin convening its investigation, and it has placed prohibitive and arcane strictures on the commission, such as requiring that any criminal subpoenas must be approved by six of the ten committee members. And when the time came to appoint a committee chair, a wanted war criminal was Bush's first choice: a man who will no longer leave the country for fear of being whisked off to the Hague, Milosevic-style.
Pot Project Pulled: 13-year-old to Fight for Her Science Fair Study
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Pot_project_pulled.html
By Renee Koury, Mercury News - 2/28/2003
Controversy over medicinal marijuana has reached the eighth grade in Belmont, where a middle school principal has refused to let a student display her project on the possible medical benefits of pot.
Sean Penn's Open Letter to President Bush
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Sean_Penn_on_Bush.html
By Sean Penn, Published in the Washington Post - 1/19/2003
The following article was written by actor Sean Penn as an open letter to President Bush.
Africa Eclipsed in 2002 U.S. Media Coverage, Says Report
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Africa_Eclipsed_in_Media.html
By Jim Lobe, OneWorld US - 12/30/2002
Urgent stories of humanitarian crises that claimed or threatened the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Africa and other war-torn regions around the world were pushed off the United States international news agenda in 2002 by the U.S.-led "war on terrorism," according to a year-end report by the international medical aid group, Doctors Without Borders.
Why I'm Fighting Federal Drug Laws From City Hall
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Santa_Cruz_vs_The_Feds.html
By Christopher Krohn, Mayor of Santa Cruz, California - 9/21/2002
How did I, a mayor of a small town in California, wind up in a tug of war with the Drug Enforcement Agency? This week, I stood in front of Santa Cruz's city hall as a local group that provides medical marijuana went about its weekly task of distributing the drug to the sick and dying.
The United States of America has Gone Mad
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Le_Carre_on_Bush.html
By John le Carre, TimesOnline UK - 1/15/2003
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
Nine States Sue Bush Administration on Clean-Air Rules
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/States_Sue_Bush.html
By Chris Baltimore, Reuters - 12/31/2002
Nine Northeastern U.S. states sued the Bush administration on Tuesday over its decision to relax clean-air rules to help coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities avoid costly pollution controls.
World Bank's New Poverty Strategy Assessed
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/World_Bank_Assessed.html
By Jim Lobe, OneWorld US - 9/27/2002
While the World Bank's three-year-old anti-poverty strategy has prompted low-income countries to pay more attention to the problems faced by their impoverished populations, it has so far failed to permit a broader questioning of the economic policies long favored by the Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to a new report by a prominent development think-tank.
Will the U.S. reap what it has sown? Byrd asks
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Will_US_Get_Reaped.html
By Paul J. Nyden, The Charleston Gazette - 9/27/2002
“We have a paper trail,” Byrd said. “We not only know that Iraq has biological weapons, we know the type, the strain, and the batch number of the germs that may have been used to fashion those weapons. We know the dates they were shipped and the addresses to which they were shipped. “We have in our hands the equivalent of a Betty Crocker cookbook of ingredients that the U.S. allowed Iraq to obtain and that may well have been used to concoct biological weapons.”
Hemp Research and Market Development in Germany
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/German_Hemp_Research.html
The cultivation and use of hemp in Germany has a long history (K–rber-Grohne 1988). The earliest findings of hemp-based ropes and fabrics in Europe were made in the Stuttgart area and can be dated back to the pre-Roman period (800-400 BC). Fabrics were not yet made from processed hemp fibers, but from the bast stripped from the plant's stem. During the early Middle Ages, retting, a biological process for the separation of plant fibers which had been used for flax, was transferred to hemp. The nutritious hemp seeds have been used as a food staple since the Middle Ages and early descriptions of the plant's medical applications date back to the 16th century. To this day, traditional hemp dishes are prepared in some of the former German provinces, such as the Silesian hemp soup made from hemp seeds and millet (Pelz and Kretschmer 1977).
Books of the Month:
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/George_Bush_Bio_BOM.html
By Webster G. Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin
From the Introduction:
The volume which we submit herewith to the court of world public opinion is, to the best of our knowledge, the first and only book- length, unauthorized biography of George Bush. It is the first approximation of the truth about his life. This is the first biography worthy of the name, a fact that says a great deal about the sinister power and obsessive secrecy of this personage. None of the other self-announced biographies (including Bush's campaign autobiography) can be taken seriously; each of these books is a pastiche of lies, distortions and banalities that run the gamut from campaign panegyric to the Goebbels Big Lie to fake but edifying stories for credulous children. Almost without exception, the available Bush literature is worthless.
Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism: An Illustrated Exposé
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Addicted_to_War_BOM.html
By Joel Andreas
"The U.S., with 4.5% of the world's population, arrogantly plunders the world's resources and cultures tp support its American Way Of Life. Addicted to War illustrates why the U.S. in NECESSARILY dependent upon war to feed its shameful consumption patterns."
-S. Brian Willson, Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist
If pictures say 1000 words, this book says more than a shelf of encyclopedias about America's Blood-Lust Diplomacy.
