Tesla secures over 500 Model S............

Less than a week after unveiling its new Model S electric sedan, Tesla Motors yesterday revealed that it has already received 520 orders for the all-electric car despite the fact the company is still waiting on the $350m (£238m) federal loan required to build the Model S assembly plant. Tesla chairman and chief executive Elon Musk said that the reservations received since the car was officially debuted in Los Angeles last week had exceeded "our optimistic internal projections", adding that the rush of orders provided "proof that there's pent-up demand for more affordable, fuel-efficient vehicles"....Link

Portugal's drug use goes down......

Champions of harsh drug criminalization laws as the best solution to curbing drug use will be chagrined to find that Portugal’s eight year history of decriminalization has led to lower drug usage rates. According to a new report entitled, “Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies,” while drug use across the European Union has risen steadily since 2000, Portugal, which has the most liberal drug laws of any country, has actually seen its prevalence rates decrease in various age groups since it decriminalized all drugs in 2001. Prevalence rates measure how many people have consumed drugs over the course of their lifetime. “I think it’s bizarrely underappreciated what’s been done in Portugal,” said Salon writer Glenn Greenwald, who authored the report. Greenwald, who speaks fluent Portuguese, traveled to Portugal in 2008 to study the affects of drug decriminalization in the country....Link

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US authorities 'complicit' in drug trafficking.....

The President of Mexico has an unfortunate message for Americans still ignorant of the Drug War's cold realities: Some of your politicians are involved. Yes folks, it is long-past time to start thinking about alternative strategies for combating both the harmful effects of drug addiction and the deadly effects of forcing an economy outside of the law. "It is impossible to pass tons of drugs and cocaine to U.S. without some great complicity of some American authorities," said Mexican President Felipe Calderone. "There is traffic in Mexico because there is corruption in Mexico. And that is true. But with the same argument, if there is traffic in United States, it is because there is some corruption in United States."....Link

A Jordan countdown....................

Wants case against NSA dismissed...........

President Barack Obama invoked "state secrets" to prevent a court from reviewing the legality of the National Security Agency's warantless wiretapping program, moving late Friday to have a lawsuit that challenged the program dismissed. The move -- which holds that information surrounding the massive eavesdropping program should be kept from the public because of its sensitivity -- follows an earlier decision in March to block handover of documents relating to the Bush Administration's decision to spy on a charity. The arguments also mirror the Bush Administration's efforts to dismiss an earlier suit against AT&T. The Friday brief involves a lawsuit filed by the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing the NSA for the wiretapping program. The agency monitored the telephone calls and emails of thousands of people within the United States without a court's approval in an effort to thwart terrorist attacks....Link

Andy Rooney and the Fast and the Furious.

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