2010 Northeast Cannabis Voters’ Guide from MaMaMoJo – the MassachusettsMarijuanaMovementJournal — by Terry Franklin, with additions by Rachel Neulander of MaMaMoJo & NormanB ("Deviations from the Norm")

In Massachusetts, 73 cities and towns will vote on whether to instruct their representatives to work for either Legalization of Medical Marijuana, or Legalization of Marijuana for Personal Consumption, to be Taxed and Regulated. To find out if your town is one of them, check the Non-Binding Public Policy Questions’ Town Roll Call, from the MassachusettsMarijuanaMovementJournal (MaMaMoJo).

MaMaMoJournal ("Massachusetts") from DEATHINKING of YouTube:

Pro-Cannabis Candidates in the Northeast
by Terry Franklin

California, with its Proposition 19, is the place to vote this year. If you have moved there recently, please do so. If you are from there, and still vote absentee, please do that. If you have a friend out there, make sure they are registered to vote. Call them on Election Day with a reminder, friendly or pesky, whichever the case requires.

But for us voters in the Northeast, I’ve put together this list of candidates in our own area who support marijuana legalization.

Not everyone is a single issue voter, but please keep this issue in mind when making your decision. Most of these people are "3rd party" candidates — Libertarians have been on board for decades — and it’s heartening to see a number of Greens joining them this year. Even without winning, minor party candidates can have an effect: One or both of the major parties see themselves losing voters, and will try to shift their platform in an effort to get them back in the next election.

I tried to make the list as comprehensive as possible. However, there is no doubt I have missed someone — especially in the more local races. Carefully evaluate the positions of all the candidates on your ballot before going to the polls on Election Day. Even if someone has not come out for legalization, they may have a position on a lesser issue such as medical, decrim, or hemp which is better than their opponent.

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Please Distribute This List Widely

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Party Designations:

(D) = Democrat
(R) = Republican
(L) = Libertarian
(G) = Green
(M) = US Marijuana Party
(A) = Anti-Prohibition Party
(I) = Independent
(S) = Independent Socialist

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CONNECTICUT

Comptroller (G) Colin Bennett
Congress (G) Kenneth Krayeske 1st C.D.
Congress (G) Charlie Pillsbury 3rd C.D.
State Rep. (I) Jason Ortiz 54th Dist.

MAINE

State Rep. (D) Anne M. Haskell District 117
State Rep. (D) Mark N. Dion District 113 (North Deering, Falmouth)

MASSACHUSETTS

Governor (G) Jill Stein
Congress (S) Michael Engel 1st Congressional District
Congress (D) Barney Frank 4th C.D.
Congress (R) Sean Bielat also in the 4th
State Sen. (D) Cythia Creem Newton area
State Sen. (R) Craig Spadafora Melrose area
State Rep. (I) Daniel Melick Amherst & Granby
State Rep. (I) Jonathan Loya Hopkinton area
State Rep. (I) Ron Madnick Worcester area
State Rep. (G) Scott Laugenaur Pittsfield area

In addition, 73 towns in MA have non-binding, but important, advisory questions, "PPQs," on the ballot, concerning either legalization or medical marijuana. Click on the Town Roll Call at the top of this article, for the Question number for each town.*

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Governor (L) John Babiarz
Senate (L) Ken Blevens
Congress (L) Phillip Hodson 1st C.D.
Congress (L) Howard Wilson 2nd C.D.
State Rep. (L) Brenden Kelly Rockingham area
State Rep. (L) Lisa Wilber Goffstown area
State Rep. (L) Rich Tomasso W.Manchester area
State Rep. (L) Steve Couture Tilton area

NEW JERSEY

Congress (L) Russ Conger 3rd C.D.
Congress (L) Joe Siano 4th C.D.
Congress (I) David Meiwinkle also in the 4th
Congress (L) Jim Gawron 11th C.D.

NEW YORK

Wow — 3 gubernatorial candidates are pro-legalization!

Governor (L) Warren Redlich
Governor (G) Howie Hawkins
Governor (A) Kristin Davis
At. General (L) Carl Person
Comptroller (L) John Gaetani
Senate-6yr (L)+(A) Randy Credico
Senate-6yr (G) Colia Clark
Senate-2yr (L) John Clifton
Senate-2yr (A) Vivia Morgan
Congress (L) Elizabeth Burney 5th C.D.
Congress (L) Tom Vendittelli 13th C.D.
Congress (L) Dino Laverghetta 14th C.D.
Congress (L) Ernest Bell 24th C.D.
Congress (L) Marc Romain 25th C.D.
Congress (L) Dean Sandstrom 27th C.D.
St. Rep. (L) Anthony Librera 60th Dist.
St. Rep. (L) Dave Narby 61st Dist.
St. Rep. (L) Danny Panzella 63rd Dist.
St. Rep. (L) Bill Gouldman 90th Dist.

PENNSYLVANIA

Congress (L) Etzel Vernon 5th C.D.
State Sen. (L) Betsy Summers 14th Dist.
State Sen. (L) Edward Gately 28th Dist.
State Rep. (L) Michael Robertson 63rd Dist.
State Rep. (L) Vance Mays 64th Dist.
State Rep. (L) Erik Viker 85th Dist.
State Rep. (L) Thomas Anderson 109th Dist.
State Rep. (L) Brian Bergman 119th Dist.
State Rep. (L) Tim Mullen 120th Dist.
State Rep. (G) Hugh Giordano 194th Dist.
State Rep. (L) Willian Kohler 196th Dist.
State Rep. (L) Michael Muhammad 203rd Dist.

RHODE ISLAND

Governor (I) Ronald Algieri

VERMONT

Governor (M) Cris Ericson
Senate (M) Cris Ericson She’s running for both
At. General (L) Karen Kerin
State Sen. (I) Larkin Forney Chittenden County

Propaganda, Political Suppression, Tony Curtis & Pot: MassachusettsMarijuanaMovementJournal/MaMaMoJo — NormanB ("Deviations from the Norm")

First, get yourself in the mood: Have a hit off the MassachusettsMarijuanaMovementJournal’s new "commercial spot for MaMaMoJo" created by multi-media artist & musician Stephen Adamo, aka DEATHINKING

…Note: Though the artist called it a "commercial", there’s nothing for sale being advertised, it’s just a plug for MaMaMoJo. Stephen Adamo also designed the new logo for MaMaMoJo which you can view at links below: Rachel thought of Michelangelo’s God passing Man a hemp leaf, but didn’t tell Stephen, on the opposite coast (where they too have some sort of election going on, I understand.) Somehow, Stephen also got the Michelangelo idea. Far out!

Actor Tony Curtis passed away today. He was in more than 150 films, and I’m not prepared to wade through all of them just to find the title of the one I’m going to tell you about. It’s not one of the relative few listed in Wikipedia. I watched it on black-and-white TV in the 1970s. It probably came out in the early 1960s, but maybe the ’50s.

The blurb in the Sunday newspaper’s TV Dial supplement said the title, then: "Movie: Tony Curtis … in the sin-ridden city of Tijuana." It was a propaganda film, kind of about how bad sex, drugs, rock and roll, and Mexicans are. Entertaining, conservative mores meet people in tight swimwear who drink and dance. Late in the film, Tony smokes the devil weed. Right away the cops close in on him. "You’ll never catch me!" he exclaims, as he dives into the Pacific Ocean, and attempts to swim across it to escape. He doesn’t make it: Another senseless drug-related death!

In 1970 (the same year he starred in What If They Had a War and Nobody Came), Tony Curtis became the spokesman for the I.Q. campaign, one of the first widespread uses of TV "commercials" to convince people not to smoke tobacco, because it’s deadly. The spots urged viewers to break their addiction to it.

Then Tony Curtis got caught with Marijuana. This time he didn’t try to swim across the Pacific, but the people he worked for did something just as crazy: They immediately fired him from the I.Q. campaign. If he was against smoking tobacco because it’s bad for you, then how can he be for smoking pot?! Hint: Because it’s not bad for you.

The firing was reminiscent of the boxing commission stripping Muhammad Ali of his heavyweight title because he refused military induction on religious grounds. As George Carlin put it: "If you’re not gonna kill ‘em, we won’t let you beat ‘em up."

Massachusetts Marijuana Elections 2010

73 towns and cities across Massachusetts will vote on Public Policy Questions on November 2 to instruct their representatives to support legislation legalizing Marijuana. Some are voting on legalizing medical Marijuana, some on whether to tax and regulate Marijuana like alcohol. All 73 are likely to pass. Rachel Neulander recently launched the MassachusettsMarijuanaMovementJournal to raise consciousness on our movement and to get word out on those PPQs.

Here is the new URL for MaMaMoJo:

MaMaMoJo

Our state is Not Listed in the States section of the Just Say Now page, which lists some, but not all of the states who will vote on Marijuana legislation or Public Policy Questions this November. If anyone there at fdl knows how to get in touch with the Just Say Now campaign, or how to let Just Say Now know about the fast-approaching Massachusetts Marijuana elections, please connect us.

Here in Massachusetts, Green Rainbow Gubernatorial candidate and Marijuana legalization advocate Dr. Jill Stein had pulled into third place in the polling, slightly ahead of Democrat-recently-turned-Independent Timothy Cahill, but he has since surged. Unfortunately, political censorship and suppression continues:The webpage of the Rasmussen poll reporting these results cites the three male candidates, who all support legalizing casinos instead of pot, by name, but it calls Jill Stein "Some other candidate."