Watering Hole: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 – The Tomato and the Hemp Plant

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Authorities should learn to recognize plants before they begin tearing up peoples’ gardens.  The residents of this small community had their organic gardens destroyed because a neighbor called the police and claimed that marijuana was growing in the gardens.

In June, an anonymous source provided police with information that Eaker was growing marijuana in a garden that is surrounded by bamboo, the warrant states.

On July 30, a Texas Department of Public Safety aircraft conducted aerial surveillance of the Garden of Eden property, according to the warrant. Based on the investigating officer’s experience, and upon review of photographs taken of a garden surrounded by bamboo, the plants inside appeared to be consistent with marijuana, police state in the warrant.

What disturbs me is that people have to fear having their home gardens destroyed because of a false alarm created by a nosy neighbor.

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This is our Open Thread.  Speak Up!

79 thoughts on “Watering Hole: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 – The Tomato and the Hemp Plant”

  1. I would like to see these police officers who “smell dope” and use that as probable cause to prove their olfactory detective excellence by identifying marijuana out of a collection of smells, including sage and skunk musk, and to also show that they can identify the exact direction from which such an odor originates (when on a roadside, for example, how do thee officers know that they smell something from inside a vehicle and not drifting in the air).

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  2. For the first 30-something years of my life I was completely a-political, to the point that I could not even tell you what a “left” or ‘right” political position was. A part of my continued and deliberate avoidance of all things political (ALL things) was the premise that “All the politicians are the same”. I doubt I came to that conclusion myself, having no political awareness whatsoever: I must have heard it somewhere, and took it to heart. And I lived it.

    In “taking that to heart” I took it to what I believe is the logical position; if you believe that all the politicians are basically the same, and they are all corrupt, then following politics and especially voting is pointless. If ‘they are all the same”, then it does not matter who is elected or which party holds power.

    Then 9/11 happened, and I started to pay attention to our politics. As soon as I started paying attention, I changed my political stance from apathy to attention. Every politician is not the same, and it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist to realize this.

    I find it intriguing that the only people “I” am hearing repeating the meme of “both parties are just as screwed up” are right wing people. I’m sure that that is not an absolute, but in person and on the blogs that is what I am encountering. And it is a false equivalence. But I wonder, why are all these TEA party people and other avowed conservatives repeating this meme while at the same time (sometimes the same sentence) tooting the horn for their republican politicians- Anyone who repeats that line yet still votes is being dishonest, and just hoping to cause some of the “opposition” to stop voting.

    If you vote at all or if you support an active political party then you do NOT believe that all politicians are just as corrupt as any other. I am sick of hearing this meme from people who are CLEARLY rabidly partisan. No one is buying it, and you are not going to convince anyone who is already paying attention to politics to suddenly stop and run off in political apathy.

    Rant off. Sorry about the length (something I have never had to say to a lady :/ ).

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  3. Some years back a farmer in Hanover County VA was raided on the same basis, police flew over and thought his tomatoes were pot.

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  4. Man goes on Facebook to defend gun rights, just hours after his three-year-old son fatally shoots himself.
    It’s truly amazing how completely brainwashed the gun rights people are. They really think that the 2nd amendment is the only thing standing between freedom and outright boot-on-the-neck tyranny. The delusion is perfect.

    http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/brian-holbrook-defends-guns-facebook-hours-after-son-fatally-shoots-himself

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    • I don’t have a problem with guns either. I have a problem with morons who don’t take the time to practice safety, make fetishes out of the damned things as though they are some magic talisman that will ward off danger in spite of the fact that they have neither training nor temperament to use them wisely, and who believe they need to hide the fact they have guns from evil government even if it means that criminals are also able to hide their guns.

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    • The government would need to subsidize the corn and tobacco farmers if hemp was legal to farm.

      This past weekend was the ‘Hemp Festival’ in Seattle and police distributed Doritos with special labels that explained the new marijuana law.

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  10. If your neighbor calls his garden “organic,” then everyone knows that’s hippie-ish and weird, so naturally suspicious. Call the Keystone Cops!

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  11. They were just standing their ground. So what if they enjoyed it too? Guns are good. Obama is black. The market will sort all this out.

    Police say teens killed Australian student in Oklahoma for the ‘fun of it’ | Fox News

    Christopher Lane, 22, who was visiting the U.S. on a baseball scholarship, was jogging along a road in Duncan, Okla., after visiting his girlfriend on Friday when he was shot in the back, allegedly by the teens.

    A woman tried CPR and paramedics arrived on scene, but Lane was pronounced dead an hour later.

    “He apparently was jogging. He went by a residence where these three boys were, they picked him as a target, they went out and got in a vehicle and followed him,” Duncan Police Department Chief Danny Ford told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, according to AFP.

    “[They] came up from behind and basically shot him in the back with a small caliber weapon, then sped away,” Ford added.

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  12. Holy fuck….

    I posted a comment on an article about Greenwald and his partner Miranda on HuffPo. Never again. Many people responded and agreed with me but I should have known it would bring out the nutbags too.

    My comment:

    “Was Miranda sloppiness on Greenwald’s part? Was it a deliberate attempt to solicit sympathy, to manipulate people’s emotions? I’ll admit that on the first read of what happened, I was angry that Miranda was detained, because Greenwald made it sound as though there was no good reason. But obviously there was.

    Now he’s planning to leak UK-specific national security documents to retaliate against his partner’s detention. I understand why Greenwald is upset, but I’m uncomfortable with this type of personal and vengeful journalism. It is something I’ve always disliked about Greenwald and those like him. It strikes me both as petty and dangerous – and not journalistic.”

    Sample responses:

    ‘It got personal when Obama forced President Morales’ plane to land in Austria. It got more personal when Obama’s shills detained Miranda. It will get even more personal as the world sees that Obama has become so out-of-control. Obama is escalating this situation by showing HIS vengefulness.’

    “”Now he’s planning to leak UK-specific national security documents to retaliate”
    Completely made up. He simply said he would not be intimidated into silence, the rest is from your conservobot memo.”

    Oy.

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  13. “You’re making up nonsense, attributing motivations to Greenwald which are insane. What? What good reason was there that Miranda was detained? Specifically? What?

    And oh my, you’re “uncomfortable” with “this type of personal and vengeful journalism”. I hope so. You should be. I hope you get good and uncomfortable, along with all the other defenders of fascist tactics.”

    Lalalalalala…..

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  14. See the story about British intelligence destroying journalists’ computers in the basement of The Guardian?

    Sheesh, talk about a pointless piece of symbolism that understands nothing about the digital age.

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  21. I’m bored. Wonder what I could do….

    OKLAHOMA CITY — An Australian man attending an Oklahoma college on a baseball scholarship was shot and killed in what police described Monday as a random act of violence by three “bored” teenagers who decided to kill someone for the fun of it.

    Christopher Lane, 22, of Melbourne, was found dead Friday while visiting the town of Duncan, where his girlfriend lives. Three boys, ages 15, 16, and 17, are in custody and face a court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

    `We were bored and didn’t have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.’

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  23. Ted Cruz reminds me a LOT of Douglas C. Niedermeyer. Cruz might want to stay a Canadianite so he can become US Prez and Canadian Prime Minister simultaneously. And with that last name he could claim Mexico eventually. Sound crazy? Then you can bet Cruz considered it.

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  24. This is the perfect outcome right? A person exercised his God-given right to own and discharge an assault weapon at a school and no one got hurt. It’s a win-win.

    Officials: Ga. school suspect fired assault rifle – Yahoo! News

    A teen was in custody Tuesday, accused of firing shots from an assault rifle at an Atlanta-area elementary school where dramatic television footage showed young students racing out of the building, being escorted by teachers and police to safety. No one was injured.

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  25. Developer Exposed By WWL-TV Pleads Guilty To Federal Theft Charges

    Based on the findings of our Eyewitness Investigation, federal authorities charged a developer whose family is a major supporter of Gov. Bobby Jindal with fraudulently billing a state Katrina recovery program.
    And Praveen Kailas pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds and one count of theft of government funds.
    He was charged in June and agreed to plead guilty Aug. 1. The case was unsealed Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance.

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  26. I already got her replying to me. Now let’s see where this goes.

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  27. QOTD:

    “With the addition of Sunny, the Obamas now have two black Portuguese water dogs. The Obamas do not have any white dogs, ” – Patrick Howley, Daily Caller.

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    • I keep hearing how funding for Obamacare is non-discretionary. The law was written that way to circumvent this. If that’s so, then they can’t pass a budget without funding it.

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  33. Hi! No pachy I said Hi not high. Testing, because I’ve got nothing. Enjoy the coming day, it’s another day to get it right.

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