PRESS SUPPRESSION

In the '30s, the press went beserk and demonised hemp, led by the Hearst newspapers. Facts were ignored so that a few companies could increase their dominance, and we are paying for it today. But the beat goes on...if you try to get them onside about this issue now, you end up wasting your time, and this includes a number of 'lefty' papers...such as the Independent, which, as the Ecologist newspaper points out, ran a front page story about environmentalists supporting nuclear energy. Here on this site you can read more details of this, and how twisted debate on biofuels kept us from developing biofuels. Also on this site, there has been much mention of press dishonesty in regards to 9/11. Above is a photo of Beverly Eckert, a 9/11 widow, clutching a photo of her late husband. She refused money from the government as a payout; part of the deal was that she would have to forego a real investigation. She stood out, and got hammered down; earlier this month she perished in a routine flight in New York. Funny how so many opponents of the Bush administration perish on aeroplanes, and the dots somehow connnect to the fact that both Bushes were pilots. In fact, the first victims of the Bushes may have been the two US Marines who died on the plane that George Herbert Walker Bush allowed to crash over Iwo Jima, without allowing them to parachute out to safety. This cowardice was observed by Sgt Chester Merzejewski. It came out in an election, but the press elected not to go into too much detail here; and maybe wisely, as those who go into 'too much detail' can end up dead. We do not know for a fact whether Beverly Eckert was murdered, but we do know that another 9/11 sceptic was - Mike Zebuhr - he was gunned down after a robbery. The gunman, ironically named Walker, fled the scene of the crime, and was pursued by the police. But when aprehended, he was let go, scot free. What gives? Zebuhr was a well respected magna cum laude graduate student and campus leader at Clemson University, where he handed out copies of Loose Change.
This week, another mysterious death, this time, someone I met recently - Paul Vigay, an IT consultant who recently put up a 9/11 website (google his name and you will see what I mean). He went out for a walk and was found a day later, washed up in the sea. No suicide note, a happy home life with a long term partner, no financial worries. Did he really decide to go for a swim in the chilly February waters off the south coast of England? Or were the comments on his site, include a number about intel service torture of suspects (the latest is that these goons were behind pulling out finger nails) too much for the CIA, whose long arm has lawlessly extended itself into so many other countries?
In addition to the mysterious deaths, there are the incidents of harrassment, including William Rodriguez's delay by Homeland Security when he was en route to the UK to discuss all this. Why would Homeland Security not want to allow him to leave the country - the hero of 9/11? 9/11 heroes, 9/11 widows, 9/11 sceptics, these seem to be the target of our security forces - who are perhaps inspired by the words of the MSNBC anchormen who asked that 9/11 sceptics be tasered, arrested, and sent to secret camps in Eastern Europe; one of these was none other than former (as in, had to leave office when the dead body of a woman was discovered in his office) US Congressman Joe Scarborough. Tasered, arrested, and sent to secret camps; or maybe just killed. This is the reality that the coward press does not report. They would rather put nuclear power stations in your backyard, which, as one environmentalist noted, are accidents waiting to happen. And accidents do happen, in a rather disproportionate proportion to those who ask awkward questions.

NOVEMBER SELECTION

As Americans mull over which chad to punch on that first Tuesday of November this leap year, a real candidate runs for office. Forget the GOP man and his sidekick, hockey mom, who has more experience blowing away polar bears than sitting in Congress (none of the latter to be precise); forget the Obama Hussein donkey candidate, who has at least some experience in DC, and forget the other candidates, especially Ralph. Go for the GREEN.
Cynthia McKinney, with whom I was privileged to spend a week with in London, is a matronly woman with a real sense of what is going on. It was she who asked Rumsfeld about the missing $2.3 trillion...and since that day, she has been made an enemy of, blacked out by the press whores who whitewash the theft that it so rife in Washington.
We can look forward to a US President who is not scamming money, who is not (like 40,41 & 43) the subject of paedophile investigations, who is not a Skull & Bones member, who is not into big business, but who is a real statesman, and has a real agenda.
Even if your vote does not get her in, it sends a message, and that needs to be heard. If the GREENS get 5% of the vote it will mean a serious victory for the party. The change from Nader, a man who never served in public office, to a person who has spent about 20 years in office, was a good move for the party and means that they can be taken a lot more seriously. McKinney's tour in London showed she has real diplomatic and speaking skills. She thrilled the audience at Friends House, the historic venue in North London, and held court well in enemy territory, such as the James Whale show (a particularly unpleasant UK shock jock who has recently had his radio licence revoked by the communications authorities). She also spoke at the Green Party UK festival in Brockwell Park and held a conference at the Friends of the Earth HQ. The people who met her, from Tony Juniper of FoE, to Mark Anslow of the Ecologist to Baroness Jenny Tonge were well impressed with her.
Her stance on the treatment of US soldiers is also a very strong point, she is the only candidate to take a stance on the DU issue. Presciently, she asserts that the people who got us into this mess, referring to Iraq, cannot be trusted to take us out. Or to take care of the soldier who they messed up with DU by giving lucrative contracts to companies that use this nuclear waste product. They make the money, our boys pay the price. That's how it works, but McKinney is vocal about changing this - and her record reflects this - look at this issue in the 109th Congress and see how she stood out from the crowd and stood up for those in uniform. The others betrayed the military on this - look at their voting records. So voting for those who vote against proper treatment of the soldiers is, it could be argued, a step away from treason. A strong military is essential, and we are currently looking at a decline in morale and enlistment. For those who care about this issue, McKinney is the candidate.
And of course, for those who want to see America growing hemp, McKinney is the candidate. She would help the likes of Dave Monson in North Dakota to get his legal rights, which his fellow GOP members have failed to do.
But, sadly, we may get Obama or McCain. I would vote for neither. I fear for America's future if they get in.
For more information on Cynthia, check out her site, www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com or click flags to see previous posts on this blog.

VEGAN GOODIES

Yesterday the Vegan Fest in London was packed as usual. The talk got under way at 1pm, introduced by Sagar. After some historical remarks about hemp, we then got to the core of the issue, nutrition. Samples of many products were at this point handed out, including the very packs seen to the left - these also came in chocolate and plain. Nutiva had kindly sent these all the way from California, and a Canadian company, Vega, also sent in supplies. No one went hungry, but there were a few unhappy souls who did not quite take kindly to us spilling the beans on soya, which was a feature in the Ecologist. As is often the case, there are people who ask inane questions about the facts, but refuse to read or listen. The Ecologist had also given us a supply of their magazines, which the diehard soya lovers refused to read! Most, however, were happy to have such a good magazine in their hands. A small point made by one of the audience members was that the Good Oil packs had salmon recipes on them, yes, that was just the way Good Oil is, and the owner, Henry Braham, who lives a short walk away from the fest, did not bother to show up - he was off in his 4x4! Not quite the way to go for anyone in the hemp business. We have been trying for years to convince him not to use defoliants on the leaves when he harvests, but he is not one for answering emails or returning calls. Oh well. I can recommend here Hemp Foods for You instead, run by Paul Dean in Glastonbury. He presses his seeds 24 hours before delivery and uses a cold stone. And needless to say, 4x4s are not his means of transport.

But getting back to the controversy, it looks like it upset not just the soya fans at a vegan fest, but the bigwigs in the soya industry are upset too, and are pulling strings behind the scenes to keep other journalists off the story. This is where the Ecologist really shines, it does not have ads for 4x4s and it does not give in to such pressure. Sadly, the press is mostly just a whore for the rich 4x4 driving types, and the little that filters through is but a fraction of the crucial information we need to be getting. The soya issue is one of the most important stories that can be printed, yet it may get lost due to journalistic cowardice. We may see a press blackout on this issue, so it is good to be able to shine some light on this while we can.

Thanks to all the hemp companies that made this happen, those mentioned already and also Sativa Bags, Minawear, Rocky Mountain Grain Products, The Hemp Shop, C-Iced Tea, and Innocent Oils.

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PLANE STUPID FLYING LOW

The folks at plane stupid are at it again. Dan Glass made an ass of himself on their behalf late last month when he glued himself to Gordon Brown's sleeve. His congeners in the climate change camp then went to Kingsnorth in Kent to protest a coal powered energy plant, after meeting up at Heathrow, scene of previous anarchy on their part. Granted though, coal power is not ideal, but we cannot have all our eggs in the petrol basket - and that is what we are being forced into by these silly protests. Better some diversity than none, and also better to keep your own citizens employed. Activists on the dole may not grasp the economic concept that if their fellow citizens do not have jobs, they do not get their dole dosh.

They are not the only ones to miss simple concepts. In Recea, Romania Florina Serban was arrested for cannabis after police found hemp plants which she was growing for fibre to be used for carpets. The 71-year-old told the police what she was doing, but they did not listen. The pensioner assserted: "I don't know what cannabis is. For me it's just a plant to make carpets of." The Daily Mail ran the story but ommitted such details, as is usual for the press. Maybe we'll send them a copy of the September issue of the Ecologist in which there will be plenty of information for them to take on board.

In other news, Kim Hough of Australia has been cultivating 'baby hemp'. Years ago I told the hemp world that we ought to harvest hemp when it is young, to see if we can get finer fibres. And voila, here we are. BioRegional, instead of listening, spent obscene amounts of money on field trials in 2005 for mature hemp, and has not produced any clothing from it yet. There are also a number of retting techniques that I hope to experiment with, and between the harvesting time and the retting we are going to see hemp much improved. It does not take that much to come up with these ideas. What holds back progress is the idiot brigade of naysayers and poorly informed protesters who cause confusion in their desire to pull off stupid stunts.

If enough of us keep plowing away on real research, such as can be found in the Ecologist, the Journal of Industrial Hemp, Journal of Natural Fibres, etc., we will be making more than just carpets with coarse Romanian fibre. Expect garments as fine as silk, as earlier authors noted of hemp.

NEW ECO SHOP IN LONDON

In January, across from the Chiswick Police Station (pictured right) actor Colin Firth is about to open yet another eco-shop, named, Eco. So far they have hemp bed linens but are looking at more hemp items to stock. Hopefully they will be a source for hempen goods. West London has a number of hemp wholesalers, THTC, Sativa and C-Ice Tea, but no shop yet. (The biggest hemp shop in London is Braintree in Camden Market, which stocks their own clothing along with a number of hemp cosmetics, books and magazines). So we will see, and maybe soon we will be able to get the real thing. At present there are a number of trendy wanna-be eco projects going on, some of which are connected to money taking scams. There is too much temptation to just be a photo op and invite the press to a love-in with pictures of polar bears. We then get to listen to speeches made by people wearing cotton and writing on environmentally destructive wood pulp paper! Imagine if we could get the press to stop chopping down the rain forest for trees for their newspapers! Now that would be a move in the right direction.

The address for Eco is 213 Chiswick High Road, W4 2DW. Nearest tube is Turnham Green on the District Line, buses include E3, 440, 267 and 27. Be there with your real eco bags made of hemp!