by Keith Daniels

Remember when you were a straight kid in college, and how you felt like the whole world was designed for somebody else? You almost felt like you were an alien from another planet. Everyone around you was talking about and having experiences that you had no part in. Worse yet, if you ever expressed your feelings of attraction towards the opposite gender, or were even suspected of having them, someone would call you “BREEDER!” and shove you into a locker. You had to worry, “What would my dorm mate think if he finds out I want to fuck women?” You certainly didn’t get invited to the frat parties where all the popular guys would get drunk and blow each other. So you hid your shame and waited for the day that your heterosexuality might be accepted.

Well, that day is coming, and it’s starting in Texas.

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by A.J. Focht

Contrary to popular belief, April 20th is not just a day where stoners ditch work and class to get high. It is, in fact, one of the last great protests in America.

Every year, tens of thousands of American citizens gather across the country to protest against the legal status of marijuana (or lack thereof). One of the largest of these gatherings takes place at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. Thousands of marijuana enthusiasts gather at Norlin Quad on the university’s campus. They light up their ganja while keeping a careful eye on the patrolling police as if to say, “Try to stop us!”

It is estimated that some ten-thousand people show up in Boulder each year on 4/20. Roughly another ten-thousand gather only miles away at Denver’s Civic Center Park. Thus, in Colorado alone, some twenty thousand people peacefully assemble to challenge the government’s prohibition of marijuana.

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In celebration of 420, SuicideGirls rolls up a fatty and shares five of our fave mellow interview moments.

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by Blogbot

More than 30,000 people are fasting to stop the Republicans pulling a fast one, with budget proposals that would cut funds for vital programs and services, while giving corporations and the super wealthy even more tax relief than they already enjoy.

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by Aaron Colter

The first time I saw Che Smith was in the basement of the Purdue Student Union in West Lafayette, Indiana. The Malcontents, a local ska band, were playing a free show in the student center on what was hopefully a weekend night, given the amount of substances I consumed. That evening, while The Malcontents were jamming out a reggae-vibe number called “We Make Profits,” and I was three-quarters into a bottle of Captain Morgan, someone started free-styling over the song – Rhymefest.

Despite starting the night in the basement of a Purdue building and waking up some sixty miles away at Butler University, I remember that song. It was, and remains, one of the single greatest live music moments in my life. But the reason I’m writing about Rhymefest, or rather Che Smith, isn’t because of his music, it’s because Che Smith is running for Alderman of Chicago’s 20th Ward.

Most of the media has defined Che Smith as a childhood friend of Kayne West, a Grammy-winner for “Jesus Walks With Me,” and the winner of a hip-hop battle with Eminem. All of these things are true, but that’s not the entire story.

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by Greg Palast

I need to speak to you, not as a reporter, but in my former capacity as lead investigator in several government nuclear plant fraud and racketeering investigations.

I don’t know the law in Japan, so I can’t tell you if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.

But what will Obama plead? The Administration, just months ago, asked Congress to provide a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors to be built and operated on the Gulf Coast of Texas — by Tokyo Electric Power and local partners. As if the Gulf hasn’t suffered enough.

Here are the facts about Tokyo Electric and the industry you haven’t heard on CNN:

The failure of emergency systems at Japan’s nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.

Nuclear plants the world over must be certified for what is called “SQ” or “Seismic Qualification.” That is, the owners swear that all components are designed for the maximum conceivable shaking event, be it from an earthquake or an exploding Christmas card from Al Qaeda.

The most inexpensive way to meet your SQ is to lie. The industry does it all the time. The government team I worked with caught them once, in 1988, at the Shoreham plant in New York. Correcting the SQ problem at Shoreham would have cost a cool billion, so engineers were told to change the tests from ‘failed’ to ‘passed.’

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by Damon Martin

When the phrase “American hero” is mentioned, names like Washington, Jefferson and Franklin come to mind. In 20 years, will Americans look back and remember names like Carpenter, Coggs and Cullen?

Those are just three of the 14 Wisconsin State Senators who left their families, homes and communities to stand up for the rights of the working men and women they represent – a course of action that has cost them personally and financially, and may even penalize them legally when all is said and done.

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