Wisconsin Republicans rush agenda before recalls

In an attempt to advance their pro-business, anti-worker and anti-environmental agenda prior to the potential recall of GOP state senators in June, Walker's Republican Assembly is frantically pushing through contentious legislation with a minimum of public disclosure and debate.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8y3BYEuZhNHzUYyj1iRYYoF4_EA?docId=76e1340ae0cd41859d635bc2b8ed754b

Big Bank Backlash: From Coast to Coast People are Moving their Money

People around the nation are continuing to put pressure on big banks for their advocacy of policies to undermine the middle class as well as the unethical and widespread pursuit of foreclosures in the wake of the Great Recession that was brought on by industry practices. Let's not forget that these banking interests have robbed the public trust and need to be broken down into more manageable sizes under renewed regulatory oversight.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10712/big-bank-backlash-coast-coast-people-are-moving-their-money

Revealed: how seed market is controlled by Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow & DuPont

The consolidation of the seed market as pursued by biotech companies and their agenda of patenting GM seeds has led to tremendous disruption in the production of food around the world and the extinction of many varieties of crop species anda preponderance of GMO food products in the US and musch of the world.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/625294/revealed_how_seed_market_is_controlled_by_monsanto_syngenta_bayer_dow_dupont.html

'Patents exacerbate genetic erosion as they promote monoculture by hindering the development of new seed varieties. In sum, the possible, long term consequences of patents are control of the whole food chain by a few companies,' said the report.

The Union’s ‘Shoddy’ Aristocracy

I find historical revelations, such as the widespread profiteering during the Civil War, to be immensely interesting and instructive when considering contemporary issues in the US. It's fascinating to learn that the word 'shoddy' originated from the deceptive manufacturing techniques employed by clothing manufacturers during this war that poorly served the soldiers in the war but enriched many unscrupulous businessmen.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/the-unions-shoddy-aristocracy/?ref=opinion

"One writer for the New York Tribune painted an equally graphic picture: “Shoddy” was, he wrote,

'poor sleezy stuff, woven open enough for seives [sic], and then filled with shearman’s dust. … Soldiers, on the first day’s march or in the earliest storm, found their clothes, overcoats, and blanket, scattering to the wind in rags or dissolving into their primitive elements of dust under the pelting rain.'"

War Against the Weak

The GOP agenda, defined by measures to strip collective bargaining rights of public sector employees, weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the pro-corporate Supreme Court's decision to preclude class action suits in favor of binding arbitration written into consumer contracts, amounts to an attack on the rights of each and every individual citizen. Without the ability to join together in collective action, the general public's democratic rights will be eviscerated.
http://www.slate.com/id/2293526/

Another Big Business Win in the U.S. Supreme Court
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10706/another-big-business-win-us-supreme-court

David Arkush of Public Citizen writes:

The case's potential impact is breathtaking. Corporations can now prevent consumers and small business owners from exercising what is often their only real option for challenging companies that defraud them by millions or even billions of dollars: banding together to file class action lawsuits. The case could be equally devastating to millions of non-union employees, who need class actions to challenge systemic discrimination by their employers. The Supreme Court has given major corporations the green light to engage in nearly limitless wrongdoing against others, so long as they do it in relatively small dollar amounts, which ensures that no one can afford to challenge the misconduct without a class action.

Hitting the Bottle - Untested Chemicals In Our Products

This Op-Ed piece examines how the EPA has yet to rule BPA out of products because of its effects on stimulating cancer cells but shows that some manufacturers have voluntarily stopped using the chemical in baby bottles and some other products. The problem is that the chemicals they are substituting have not been tested for safety and could be even more dangerous. We have the highest cancer rates in the world and perhaps it's time to test chemicals for human safety before we allow them to be used in commercial products!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/opinion/09browning.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Elitism is Dead: The New Debate for the Good Food Movement

A review of food policy and debate in the wake of The Future of Food symposium recently put on by The Washington Post at Georgetown University. Prince Charles' presentation regarding the perils of industrial agriculture, soil erosion and many other issues, based on his Duchy Originals organic farming experience, were largely marginalized with talk about organic food being elitist. In fact, what is really undemocratic about US food policy is the concentration of so much power in the hands of so few corporate productions and their government acolytes. Good reading on an issue that affects each and every one of us.
http://civileats.com/2011/05/06/elitism-is-dead-the-new-debate-for-the-good-food-movement/

Mass Arrests, Tear Gas, Sound Weapons used Against WIU Students

This disturbing footage of riot police cracking down on college students with tear gas and sonic weapons took place in MaComb, Illinois last Saturday. Is this America? How can we allow such blatant violation of constitutional rights as these to take place? This account, supported by video footage, shows the students peaceably assembled on their front lawns yet the riot police illegally entered homes without warrants and used pepper spray against the students.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufKv-5t0t4E

Police, SWAT Teams Storm College Block Party With LRAD Sound Cannons, Tear Gas, Riot Gear for No Reason
http://www.NaturalNews.com/032318_block_party_SWAT_teams.html

WIU Parent Wants Answers After Police Use Pepper Spray
http://www.wqad.com/news/western-illinois-university-riots-wheeler-street-block-party-05032011,0,7847957.story

Calling on the Power of Moms

Food & Water Watch chooses Mother's Day as an opportunity to highlight the dangers of the endocrine disruptor Triclosan, that is found in many household products. While this is news to me, the site details a host of problems with this industrial compound and reveals that both the FDA and EPA are investigating its safety.
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/calling-on-the-power-of-moms/

Has Elizabeth Warren Won Over the Banks?

This update on sentiment in the banking community regarding Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers some encouragement regarding her eventual nomination to head the consumer watchdog group. While the GOP still seems set on undermining the CFPB and its mandate, some in the banking community have warmed to Warren and credit her knowledge of the industry as well as her dedication to consumer advocacy. This may make it more likely that Warren could survive congressional hearings to head the bureau should Obama finally decide to formally nominate the law professor to the post.
http://beta.motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/elizabeth-warren-cfpb-community-banks

Fox Business Fails To Disclose Industry Ties Of Drilling Proponent

In an age of decreasing budgets for journalism and the increasing reliance on 'expert' commentary in TV news, this sort of thing is occurring all too often. It's well-known that viewers tend to give more credence to non-partisan 'experts' on hotly debated issues but shouldn't we be told if a commentator has financial ties to the industry their commentary supports? The featured 'expert' in this Media Matters expose happens to have PR clients who own millions of acres of potential oil fields in Alaska. To present such a voice as independent is nothing short of a travesty that constitutes propaganda of the most insidious sort.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201105070007?utm

This week in the War on Women

This column reviews details on a host of laws that are being enacted around the country to restrict women's right to choose and cut funding for women's healthcare and, abortions. It's really an all-out assault on American women that is not only a threat but an insult to all women. 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/07/973996/-This-week-in-the-War-on-Women?utm

Voter ID Bill Under Scrutiny at the Capitol in Wisconsin

The nationwide push for voter ID laws in several states is actually a trumped-up legislative assault on a non-issue as voter fraud has been shown to be a negligible problem in America. Nonetheless, several states, including Wisconsin, are pushing voter ID laws that target the least stable residents, ethnic groups and students, and if approved would work to reduce turnout of likely Democratic voters.
http://www.defendwisconsin.org/2011/04/27/voter-id-bill-under-scrutiny-at-the-capitol/

As voter ID bill heads toward passage, the only certainty is a high price tag
http://www.defendwisconsin.org/2011/05/07/as-voter-id-bill-heads-toward-passage-the-only-certainty-is-a-high-price-tag/

PR Industry Fills Vacuum Left by Shrinking Newsrooms

This story highlights a distressing pattern, a declining number of journalists increasingly dependent on PR releases and video news releases for their segments. The PR industry has grown not only in numbers but also in the sophistication of their tactics, presenting a compelling information problem for the masses.
http://www.truth-out.org/pr-industry-fills-vacuum-left-shrinking-newsrooms/1304357509

Why We Need a Nationwide Moratorium on Fracking

Fracking for natural gas is a hotly contested issue these days as reports of widespread contamination of drinking water supplies, methane gas leaks and undocumented toxins used in the process continue to cause public concern in the largely unregulated industry that won exemption from federal Drinking Water Protection guidelines during the Bush Administration under Dick Cheney's direction. Oh yeah, the hydraulic fracturing process was developed by good old Halliburton and sold as "green" to us by its former CEO, Dick Cheney.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/fracking-moratorium_b_858654.html

This extensive report on the gas fracking industry and it's false claims of safety and climate neutrality was produced by the author's organization DeSmogBlog. 
How Unconventional Gas Fracking Threatens Our Water, Health and Climate
http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/

Monsanto gave us Agent Orange, Aspartame and Cancer Causing Additives in our Food Supply -

Let's not forget the horrors of Agent Orange and the sickness and birth defects it caused for US veterans and the Vietnamese as we contemplate Monsanto's role in our society and its increasing dominance in the US food supply and industrial agriculture model. This story was published by Veteran's Today and serves to review Monsanto's conduct over the years, some of the harm it's perpetrated against public health, and points out the revolving door appointment of a former Monsanto lobbyist as Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA. 
http://current.com/127sd4c

Protests in Benton Harbor follow Martial Law Enforcement

This PR Watch update on the Emergency Financial Manager law in Michigan that allows the Governor to strip all local elected officials and statutory powers, in effect declaring martial law, and place authoritarian powers in the hands of unelected political appointees. The test case for this law is Benton Harbor and it is part of a statewide push to privatize education and strip teacher's unions of their collective bargaining rights and jobs. Governor Snyder has now identified 23 new districts that are at risk of having the EFM laws applied to their local governments. This is an anti-democratic process that s currently being legitimized in Michigan and it should cause grave concern to all Americans who value their constitutional protections and democratic rights. Included is a link to a Rachel Maddow segment on the Benton Harbor story featuring an interview with the Lansing mayor who ran against Snyder in the last election.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10702/protests-benton-harbor-follow-martial-law-enforcement

FDA Approved Big Pharma Drugs Without Effectiveness Data

The rush to brings drugs to market has resulted in many drugs with less benefits than current available treatments to be prescribed to patients. A Congressionally-funded directive to determine comparative effectiveness of new drugs has often been ignored by the FDA which has approved a number of these drugs without studying the effectiveness data.
http://www.NaturalNews.com/032279_Big_Pharma_fraud.html

Honduras: Teargassed Open, for Business

A report on the situation in Honduras where a US-backed military regime has been repressing dissent violently in the course of crushing teacher's unions in a push to privatize education throughout the country. 
http://www.thenation.com/article/160472/honduras-teargassed-open-business

Raw Foods Raid - The Fight For the Right To Eat What You Want

This ReasonTV video about continuing FDA armed raids and persecution of natural food producers and cooperatives, ostensibly on behalf of the industrialized food industry, is alarming to say the least. It's a short, sweet and immensely important report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioN0ehlyyXI

FDA claims power to seize food without evidence of contamination

The more I learn about the activities of the FDA in persecuting the natural foods industry, and it's role in supporting the pharmaceutical industry at the risk of public health, the more I fear that the agency's agenda is not aligned with a purported mission to protect the public interest. 
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/fda-claims-power-to-seize-food-without.html

Profits At Largest 500 Corporations Grew By 81 Percent In 2010

This is a stunning report on the profitability of the Fortune 500 in 2010, a year in which corporate tax revenues as a percentage of GDP were the lowest they've been in years.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/05/fortune-500-corporations-81/

European Union to investigate net-neutrality concerns

We all will be affected by Net Neutrality laws in the US and need to stay informed on these issues. Once a tiered service approach is adopted then the voices of the lay public will be muted and the corporate-financed bullhorn will rule the day. It's going to be yet another battle worth fighting for citizens, small businesses and consumers who have been manipulated for so long by commercial interests.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13134494

Don't Be Duped by the Sewage Sludge Industry's "Compost"

Groups like Kellogg Garden Products are masquerading as green business by promoting "compost" that is made up of big city sewage sludge containing all sort of chemical and bacterial contamination. In LA recently this "compost" from industrial and human waste was being heralded as part of the organic school garden initiative there.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10700/dont-be-duped-sewage-sludge-industrys-compost

GOP House Blocks Bid To Name Elizabeth Warren Head Of The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The GOP is desperately trying to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and wants to replace a single head to the bureau with a five person oversight panel, among other tactics designed to curtail its ability to enact reforms that truly benefit consumers and their pocketbooks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/04/gop-blocks-elizabeth-warren-cfpb_n_857780.html

Here's another story on these developments from CitizenVox, an arm of Public Citizen. This story includes a link to sign a petition that now has over 26,000 signatures, asking Obama to appoint Warren to the post.
http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/05/05/elizabeth-warren-amendment/?utm

Wisconsin Democrats file formal challenge against recall petitions submitted by Republicans

This article reveals major allegations against out-of-town petitioners who gathered signatures to recall three Democratic state senators in Wisconsin. All sorts of tactics appear to have been used to get people to sign, including lying about the purpose of the petition. It appears that after all challenges are heard, including six GOP recall petitions, that the recall elections will be held sometime in mid-June. That could be a very exciting time for those hoping to push back against the arrogance of Republicans and their anti-labor, anti-environment agenda.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/05/973490/-Wisconsin-Democrats-file-formal-challenge-against-recall-petitions-submitted-by-Republicans?utm

Fight over Israel and Tony Kushner heats up

A recipient of a 2008 Honorary Degree from CUNY, based on her academic work examining McCarthyism, has said she will return her award in protest of the University's politically motivated decision to table the Kushner degree.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/05/cuny_kushner_honorary_degree_update

School Blocks Kushner Honor Over Israel
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/05/04/tony_kushner_cuny_israel

The International Assault on Labor

Noam Chomsky is a brilliant critic of the American capitalist system and its many manifestations, particularly concerning our country's propensity to use military force to protect national interests. In this essay, penned to coincide with the May Day international labor celebrations, Chomsky details recent attacks and trends against labor in the U.S. that are championed in the name of free trade and globalization, while extemporizing on the exploitation and manipulation of the system on the part of the financial class.
http://www.truth-out.org/internationl-assault-labor/1304431702

Supreme Court Deals Crushing Blow to Americans

Public Citizen is actively opposing the new Supreme Court ruling to forces customers and employees to accept binding arbitration, and forego class action remedies, to redress legal claims against powerful corporations. The group is filing litigation in opposition of the recent ruling and it's in the interest of all American consumers and workers to support their efforts.
http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/04/27/att-versus-concepcion-injustice-federal-arbitration-act-class-action/?utm

Corporate Royalty - Perspective from Public Citizen

Public Citizen is actively campaigning for corporations to disclose their political contribution when vying for government contracts, and also agitating for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizen's United Supreme Court ruling. Read this piece and then sign a few petitions that are hosted on the site.
http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/04/29/corporate-royalty-pay-to-play-class-action-lawsuits-transparency/?utm

Spitzer Calls on Holder to Prosecute Goldman Sachs or Resign

Former NYS Governor, NY Attorney General and noted Wall Street critic, Elliott Spitzer, has publicly called for US Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute Goldman Sachs for double dealing and lying about their role in the financial collapse and also to a Senate panel. Spitzer points out that Goldman made a high-level decision that the entire housing market was going to collapse, in 2008, and then bet against it.
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/spitzer04222011.htm

15 Dangerous Drugs Big Pharma Shoves Down Our Throats

This report from last November details a host of serious side effect problems with fifteen major market drugs that are still sold to unwitting patients who simply believe that the FDA would not approve dangerous medications for human use. In fact, over the past two decades the FDA has transferred significant risk to patients for choosing their medications. They list side effects in package inserts and that is largely the extent of 'buyer beware'. This is very distressing reading.
http://www.alternet.org/health/148907/15_dangerous_drugs_big_pharma_shoves_down_our_throats/?page=1

Fracking Well Shutdown Extended As Researchers Study Link To Earthquakes In Arkansas

This article fails to mention the hundreds of unregulated chemicals used in fracking, and the dangers to water safety that they present. Nonetheless, it brings attention to the situation in Arkansas where many believe that the deep drilling and injection of wastewater has spurred seismic activity. In the month prior to the moratorium there were 80 seismic events, whereas since drilling has halted there have only been 20 earthquake events in the region.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/21/fracking-shutdown-earthquakes-arkansas_n_851930.html

Greenwashing Genetically Engineered Crops

Food & Water Watch has produced a talking points guide that refutes 6 beneficial claims of the biotech industry regarding genetically-engineered crops and food.
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/factsheet/greenwashing-genetically-engineered-crops/

Is a mining company giving the shaft to farmers and ranchers?

As the battle for water rights between the energy sector and agriculture rages on, Farm Wars puts the spotlight on some back room dealing in Nevada that may permit a fifty-year Mt. Hope mining project to proceed without accurate environmental impact studies. This story also contains disturbing information that the mining company in question, General Moly, is parted owned by a George Soros associated company, Black Rock Trust Company. That trust is on record as the fifth largest shareholder in Monsanto.
http://farmwars.info/?p=5994&utm

Big Pharma's Crime Spree: Drug Makers Pushing Products For Unapproved Uses

Here are a couple of background pieces on recent prosecutions against Big Pharma that resulted in record civil and criminal fines that did not even dent the enormous profits generated by illegal sales tactics pushing doctors to prescribe off-label uses for dangerous drugs.
Pfizer Broke the Law by Promoting Drugs for Unapproved Use
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a4yV1nYxCGoA&pos=10



A Public Citizen report on Johnson & Johnson's settlement for bribing doctors to prescribe dangerous off-label uses for one of its drugs.
Crime in the Pharma Suites
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=4360

Blue Cross, Blue Shield Getting Richer, Like Corporate Insurers

This report examines record profits for health insurance companies and also the tax break supported "non-profit" Blue Shield and Cross. Look at these numbers and see the fat layer of profits piled onto the US healthcare system. We pay the most and still have 51 million uninsured, while denying coverage drives the bottom line. We need to push very hard in the direction of a single-payer system, like what recently passed in Vermont, if we are ever to knock down healthcare costs and provide affordable care to all citizens.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10696/blue-cross-blue-shield-getting-richer-corporate-insurers

De-Coding Seafood Eco-Labels: How the European Commission Can Help Consumers Access Sustainable Seafood

The largest sustainable food source in the world, fish in the oceans, are at risk of being crippled by over-fishing on the part of large, technologically sophisticated factory fishing operations. Those interested in the challenges faced by most saltwater species should check out the excellent documentary, The End of the Line. Currently efforts are underway to encourage sustainable fishing practices and label seafood products accordingly. This Food & Water Watch report details a host of problems with the private eco-labels used to demonstrate that seafood products were harvested responsibly and sustainably in Europe. 
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/de-coding-seafood-eco-labels-europe/

Healthcare spending in US dwarfs other OECD countries

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a new report showing that the US spends significantly more on heathcare than other western countries and with poor results despite the growing expenditures.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/03/971177/-Healthcare-spending-in-US-dwarfs-theOECD?utm

"In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in the world. In 2006, "the United States was number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy."

Liberal Group’s Video Assails Koch Brothers - NYT

The Times gives space to Brave New Foundation launch of a longterm activism campaign against the Koch brothers and their anti-worker, anti-environment agenda. In the initial strike of filming the BNF filmmakers shoot outside five of the Koch mansions across the country, and attempt to interview the industrialist brothers.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/liberal-groups-video-campaign-assails-koch-brothers/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Genetically Engineered Food News Launches Website to Inform Consumers of GMOs

A new website dedicated to informing consumers of the dangers and effects of genetically modified and genetically engineered food has been launched. The link here is to a press release of the announcement from Genetically Engineered Food News.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8358952.htm

Genetically Engineered Food News link with useful resources on all varieties of GE crops including vegetables, fruit and trees, as well as animals. There is also an impressive group of partners and friends among the detailed list of supporters including OCA and Food & Water Watch among many others.
http://geneticallyengineeredfoodnews.com/

The Deadly Corruption of Clinical Trials

This Mother Jones story is from October 2010 and examines the deadly risks of patients who enroll in pharmaceutical clinical drug trials.
http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/dan-markingson-drug-trial-astrazeneca

"The danger lies not just in the particular circumstances that led to Dan's death, but in a system of clinical research that has been thoroughly co-opted by market forces, so that many studies have become little more than covert instruments for promoting drugs. The study in which Dan died starkly illustrates the hazards of market-driven research and the inadequacy of our current oversight system to detect them."

After Surviving War in Iraq, US Troops Now Being Killed by Big Pharma

The US Army apparently freely prescribes psychotropic drugs, sleeping pills and other medications to soldiers in the field, resulting in pharmaceutical addictions and disturbingly high suicide rates among veterans. One-third of the US Army is currently on at least one prescription drug many of which are psychiatric chemical treatments. This NaturalNews.com article from February examines a number of examples as well as the pervasiveness of pharmacological treatment for a host of problems facing these soldiers.
http://www.NaturalNews.com/031379_soldiers_psychiatric_drugs.html

An excellent and thorough NYT article on this topic: 
For Some Troops, Powerful Drug Cocktails Have Deadly Results
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/us/13drugs.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha3

Psychiatrists and Big Pharma Desperately Want to Diagnose and Treat Your "Mental Illness" with Addictive, Dangerous and Expensive Psychotropic Drugs

Over the past couple of days I carefully screened the documentary "Marketing of Madness" produced by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. The video is almost three hours long and I recommend watching it in parts as the information is stunning and difficult to absorb all at once. In short, this important and disturbing work painstakingly establishes how the field of psychiatry has become compromised by financial relationships with drug companies that have led practitioners to more broadly define mental illness through the peer-generated DSM guidelines, and prescribe drugs with dangerous side effects to treat symptoms of disease. These psychotropic drugs do not cure the diseases or conditions but rather suppress the symptoms, and at the same time dramatically increase most patient's risk of depression, suicide, heart attack and sudden death, depending on the drug in question. The mechanism of action for all psychotropic drugs as listed on the package insert is "unknown" and the results of clinical trials and post-marketing research demonstrate that such drugs are very dangerous indeed. The money involved in the psychotropic drug industry amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars in the US alone and this money has corrupted the profession and regulatory agencies. I cannot begin to touch on the compelling evidence that many millions are being victimized and exploited by pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists in the mental health field and strongly urge you all to watch this important film. The links below all connect to the same documentary and I will post articles on these very important issues shortly. A Quick Facts reference link from CCHR is also listed below.


Citizens Commission on Human Rights - The Marketing of Madness
http://www.cchr.org/videos/marketing-of-madness/introduction.html

The Marketing of Madness - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1nbZCNDgbY&feature=related

The Marketing of Madness - Dr. Mercola.com

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/05/03/tips-to-avoiding-depression.aspx

CCHR - Quick Facts About Psychiatry
http://www.cchr.org/quick-facts/introduction.html

Note: The CCHR was established by the Church of Scientology and functions independent of that entity, as an international psychiatric watchdog group. I do not endorse the church but I do believe that the CCHR is an important critical voice with regard to abuses on the part of psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry. 

Wisconsin Voters Reject GOP Governor's Anti-Labor Agenda, Giving Key Election Win to Democrats

Democrats gained a seat in the Wisconsin Assembly as special elections to fill seats held by Walker appointees were held on Tuesday. The win was for a western district formerly held by Walker's right-hand man, Michael Huebsch, and indicates that the recall vote in that area against Dan Kapanke could well succeed this fall. If the Democrats can gain two more State Senate seats out of the six GOP recall elections, and not lose any in Dem recall votes,  they will achieve a majority in the Assembly.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/160386/wisconsin-voters-reject-gop-governors-anti-labor-agenda-giving-key-election-win-democrat

New Study Shows Higher Mortality Risk at For-Profit Dialysis Chains

Diabetes is a cash cow in the US that affects many millions of Americans. A good part of the problem stems from the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup in many foods, particularly soda, the reliance of many on fast food for nutrition, and a reduced emphasis on exercise in our schools. Another hazard, it turns out, is that privatized dialysis operations are providing inferior care to many diabetes patients, greatly reducing the odds of patients for living with the disease. In fact, mortality rates of these treatment centers, when compared to not-for-profit providers, are as much as 24% higher for those receiving treatment in the privatized outfits.
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-study-shows-higher-mortality-risk-at-in-for-profit-dialysis-chains

Washington Already Considering Ways To Ruin Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Details on some new bills designed to weaken the mandate and regulatory impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been targeted by the GOP and industry as a threat to profits as it seeks to protect consumer rights in financial matters by streamlining contracts and disclose true pricing in a host of financial transactions.
http://consumerist.com/2011/05/washington-already-considering-ways-to-ruin-consumer-financial-protection-bureau.html

Feds Gave $220 Million In Bailout Bucks To Two Morgan Stanley Wives For Some Reason

I hadn't heard about this little deal that was part of the TARP bailout. It's just one little reminder of how the banking industry is making the public pay for their crappy derivative loan packages, and exploiting a broken system for personal and corporate gain.
http://consumerist.com/2011/05/feds-gave-220-million-in-bailout-bucks-to-two-morgan-stanley-wives.html