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I have not seen any Culberson campaign signs. Or bumper stickers. I drive a lot between the West Loop and the Westheimer/Fondren area and between there and downtown. My friend Bindu lives off Mid Lane in the Galleria area and my roommate Peg goes to Bellaire, West University and the Montrose a lot. None of us remembers seeing ANY Culberson signs. None! Nada! Zip!!!

I haven't seen any polls except Henley's internal poll that showed Culberson under 50% but Henley not making 40% - but that was earlier this year - I believe around June or July and I hear barely any political news about this race. But I do see Henley signs. Not nearly as many as the Ellen Cohen and Martha Wong signs I see driving down Beechnut - but I see NO Culberson signs. What's happening these days in this race?

I read the the Cook Political Report has moved Culberson to their list of Vulnerable Republican Incumbents (http://www.cookpolitical.com/races/report_... ). However, he only has one vulnerability of the several factors. They report that he is an incumbent with less than $200,000 cash on hand. And he refuses to participate in a reasonable debate without unreasonable conditions (http://www.henleyforcongress.com/vertical/...

Is Culberson in trouble?

I know a lot of you are probably thinking "Why should I call, Culberson (or other hard-headed Republican congressman) won't vote for this no matter how many people call" but I would encourage people to call and if you think that they won't vote for it, ask them to at least consider NOT voting on this at all. That would help almost as much as them voting for it. Please consider asking them to simply not vote if they think they can't vote for it.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: DRCNet <drcnet@drcnet.org >
Date: Jun 21, 2006 10:07 AM
Subject: Urgent: House MedMj Vote NEXT WEEK!
To: cannabis.flower@gmail.com


Dear DRCNet supporter,

Sources have informed us that the Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana vote in the House of Representatives is going to happen NEXT WEEK. This amendment if passed will forbid the US Dept. of Justice from interfering with state medical marijuana laws. Your help is needed -- it is crucial that more members of Congress vote for medical marijuana this year than did last year. Please visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana / to e-mail your member of Congress today!

When you're done, please call him or her on the phone to make additional impact -- use the talking points appearing below and to the right in this e-mail to prepare for your phone call. You can find out how to reach your Rep. using the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or our lookup tool at http://stopthedrugwar.org/lookup.html .

Please also tell your friends about this important action alert -- we need for everyone who cares about this to take action, and sending them to our web site to do so will also help to grow our list for the next time.

Again, please visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana / to lobby Congress and help medical marijuana patients today! Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

David Borden, Executive Director
Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036
http://stopthedrugwar.org

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Your Congressperson

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: Vote YES on Hinchey-Rohrabacher Medical Marijuana Amendment

Dear ,

On June 6, 2005, the US Supreme Court made a ruling upholding the power of the federal government to ban medical use of marijuana. While this ruling does not change law in the states that have passed medical marijuana protections, it does mean that the federal government -- unfortunately -- will still have the power to use its resources to undermine the will of the voters or legislatures of those states.

I think that is wrong, and I urge you to take an important opportunity coming up to set things right. The Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, to be considered this month in the debate over the Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations bill, would prohibit the federal government from arresting, raiding or prosecuting patients who are abiding by state medical marijuana laws.

Please vote YES when the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment comes to the floor. Medical marijuana patients and their providers should not have to live in fear that police will break down their doors and take them to jail because of their choice of medicine, certainly not in states whose voters or legislators have voted to protect them. That is a horrendous state of affairs, and it is irrational to divert federal resources to attacking patients that could otherwise be used to protect the nation from terrorists who want to attack us.

Voting YES on Hinchey-Rohrabacher is the only rational or responsible choice that you can make on this amendment.

Sincerely,




Take Action!



Tell-A-Friend:
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.


What's At Stake:

Since medical marijuana initiatives were first passed nine years ago, the DEA has conducted raids against medical marijuana clinics in California, recently with increasing frequency, forcing hundreds if not thousands of patients to procure marijuana in the black market instead. In a ruling issued on June 6, 2005, the US Supreme Court upheld the government's power to do this.

While this doesn't change anything -- state laws protecting medical marijuana patients and their providers still are binding upon state and local law enforcement authorities -- it is a missed opportunity for the Court to rein in federal overreaching and help some of our society's most vulnerable members.

Fortunately, Congress will have a chance this month to set things right. The Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, to be considered during the debate on the Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations bill, would prohibit the federal government from arresting, raiding or prosecuting patients who are abiding by state medical marijuana laws.

Your help is needed to get it passed. Please visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana / to send an e-mail to your US Representative asking him or her to vote YES on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment. When you are done, please call your Rep. on the phone as well to make even greater impact -- call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected, or use our lookup tool at http://stopthedrugwar.org/lookup.html to get the direct number.

TALKING POINTS FOR YOUR PHONE CALL OR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

* The Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment, which will come up during debate on the House Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations bill this month, would forbid the Dept. of Justice from using funds to undermine state medical marijuana laws.
* More than three out of four Americans think medical use of marijuana should be legal, according to polls, and eleven states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Washington -- have all enacted medical marijuana laws in recent years.
* Despite such strong support, the federal government continues to block even research to determine marijuana's medical benefits. Yet the 1999 Institute of Medicine report determined that marijuana does have medical benefit.
* Medical organizations such as the American Nurses Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians support legal access to medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.
* Blocking patients from receiving needed medicine -- threatening them with arrest, prosecution and incarceration -- is senseless and cruel.
* Congress should respect state's rights and not used armed federal agents to threaten patients and providers who are in compliance with state law.

Take Action This Week!


--
Tammera Halphen

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

In EVERY case, "Barriers to Trade" and "Restrictions on Corporations" were created to protect something valuable!

I was at the convention and attended some of both the Platform and Resolutions committees. The platform committee seemed to run pretty smoothly but it was my understanding (correct me if I am wrong) that the platform should be written with the resolutions passed at the previous convention and the previous platform in mind.

Last year the Democrats passed a resolution supporting medical marijuana. This was not in the platform at all. Not only that, language in the platform that implied medical marijuana support was removed. It was in a paragraph that was titled "A Patient's Bill of Right". The paragraph was:



The line that was included which implied medical marijuana was:



I pointed this out to committee members, Bill Crozier, Tom Rowen and Suzi Wills, members of Progressive Action Alliance, Texas Progressive Populist Caucus and Drug Policy Forum of Texas respectively and Tom moved to have the Patient's Bill of Rights put back in. Garnet Coleman who was chairing the platform committee said that the reason that it was taken out was because we passed a Patient's Bill of Rights law. However, this law that was passed did not include the line implying medical marijuana. So it was defeated to add the Patient's Bill of Rights. I would have talked to the committee people to ask them to move to add just the medical marijuana implying language back in but before I could say anything someone moved to pass the whole Health Care section as written in the draft platform and that passed. That is the last I heard about what went on in the platform committee.

On the Resolutions committee my contact was Barbara Ashley. At the first part of the meeting the chairman was trying to pass all kinds of memorial resolutions for people who had died - one at a time. Barbara Ashley tried to make a motion that these be passed en masse and was told that he would not accept her motion. He also wanted to discuss each resolution that had been passed by more than seven Senate Districts and pick each of them apart and argue against some of them. Barbara again tried to make a motion that they be voted on as a group and she was again told that her motion was not accepted. Other people on the committee were getting mad at her but the real person doing the obstructing and slowing down was the committee chairman and not Barbara. Without getting a whole lot done they recessed to elect the party chair. Sometime after this the Resolutions Committee chairman left the convention and didn't return. I heard that stuff was done and that my Drug Policy Reform and a Medical Marijuana Resolution were apparently passed by the committee but somehow not accepted by the convention chair (or something - this is where what Barbara Ashley didn't quite sink in) and that they (and maybe other resolutions) had been referred to SDEC for consideration. What exactly happened? I was on the bus that the Harris County Democratic Party chartered and we had to leave around 6:30 or 7pm.