http://www.winningourfuture.com/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/

As a small business owner, I regularly deal with the State Board of Equalization regarding sales tax reports and occasional audits. This Fortune article is quite enlightening regarding marijuana and the BOE. Key section:

In the early days of dispensaries the California Board of Equalization, which collects state and local sales tax, refused to issue seller’s permits to dispensaries that sought them — the necessary prelude to paying sales tax in the state. The board viewed such establishments as certainly illegal under federal law, and possibly illegal under state law.

In October 2005 the board changed tack and began allowing dispensaries to pay sales taxes if they wanted, and in 2007 it completed the reversal by requiring them to pay sales taxes and demanding that they do so retroactively to October 2005.

The board assured the dispensaries in a February 2007 letter that it would now issue seller’s permits even if the dispensary refused to answer portions of the standard application — identifying the product sold, for instance, or listing suppliers — due to “concerns about confidentiality or self-incrimination.”

Since sellers’ permits do not require establishments to identify themselves as medical marijuana dispensaries, the board has no hard records on sales taxes collected from them. Unless there is extremely poor compliance by dispensaries, however, the numbers should be robust.

Harborside alone reported about $15 million in sales in 2008, for instance, and DeAngelo estimates that the average revenue for each of California’s 700 dispensaries probably ranges from $3 million to $4 million annually. If so, gross statewide medical cannabis sales are approaching $2.5 billion, generating taxes of around $220 million. That does not include the state and federal income taxes that dispensaries and their employees also pay, and employee payroll taxes.

The main reason I purchased the Motorola Surfboard SB5101 was because I kept getting “connection lost” while playing Horde mode on public XBox Live. There is nothing more frustrating than progressing many levels on Horde mode and then suddenly losing connection to the game. My other Internet services were all working fine, but I decided to upgrade per the advice of my brother who noted much greater performance when he installed the SB5101 for himself and my parents.

The key to initiating the new modem with your Comcast high speed Internet service is to call their customer service line and choose upgrade or change in service. This will get you a rep very quickly. Then tell that rep immediately that you need help with your high speed internet service or they may think you’re asking for their cable service. Once you get a rep, they’ll verify your contact info, and then all you need to give them is the MAC id for the modem. This is printed on the modem, on the box, and stickers included with the box. Then, all you have to do is hook up the new SB5101. You should have full Internet access within 10 to 30 minutes. If you don’t have full access in that time frame, you may have to call back again to make sure the new MAC id has been “pushed” through all their backend systems for the new modem to work.

After installation of the SB5101, gameplay on XBox live seemed a lot crisper, and I didn’t suffer any drops in connectivity. I did some speed tests too, and the modem has increased the speed of both downloads and especially uploads.

Given that we would never have had the odious George W. Bush in the White House in the first place if it wasn’t for your blow jobs, Bill, it seems obvious that you owe it to the people of this country, and especially to the parents whose kids died in the Iraq War that Gore would never have started, and to all the parents whose kids would be killed in the WarFest that would be a McCain/Palin — sorry, Palin/McCain — administration to do everything in your power to get Barack Obama elected.

My thoughts exactly. It’s amazing how history changed because of this minor incident that was blown out of proportion.

FAIL

Charlie, you shouldn’t have to explain the Bush Doctrine to a potential President.

After eight weeks of picketing along El Camino Real with no pay, striking service writers and mechanics at BMW of Mountain View have come to an agreement with owner AutoNation.

The workers were forced to make a compromise when an overwhelming number of replacement workers began crossing the picket line to take the union jobs. The replacement workers will stay, but many who stood faithfully on the picket line will have to go — a total of 22 mechanics and three service writers.

Needless to say, many of the union workers were infuriated by the situation.

“I walked on the sidewalk for eight weeks without a paycheck and I got a contract for those guys inside,” said mechanic Mike Romano.

Jimmy Hoffa’s rolling over in his grave.

Meanwhile, Hollywood is gearing up for pro-Obama events — concerts, parties and galas — between now and November.

A soundtrack CD with songs dedicated to Obama is in the works (think of all that musical hope available for download to your iPod.) A black and white ball is planned for Aug. 21 in Beverly Hills where celebrities are being invited to celebrate Obama’s candidacy.

(The candidate, however, will not actually be there. He will be busy working on his acceptance speech, which he’ll deliver four days later at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.)

Some of the celebrities who’ve already signed up to attend the ball, which is being organized independently of Obama’s campaign, include: Lucy Liu, Ashley Judd, Jessica Alba, Don Cheadle, Khaled Hosseini, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dennis Haysbert, Kathy Griffin, Zach Braff, Regina King, Hill Harper, Ben McKenzie, Melanie Brown and “many executives and industry professionals,” according event chairwoman Asal Masomi.

I can’t wait to see the photos of President Palmer giving a few words of advice to President Obama