Republican Governors Use Budget Woes To Wage War On The Arts

In five states Republican governors or legislatures have proposed either dismantling arts or completely eliminating funding streams in a renewed push to cut public funding for the arts and public broadcasting. The brazen, autocratic tactics employed by those pushing this agenda should make your blood boil.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/18/state-level-arts-destruction/

Major Union Victory for Rite Aid Workers Offers Roadmap for Labor Movement

A very interesting and inspiring story detailing how Rite Aid workers were able to win a good union contract over a grueling five year period. They were able to win affordable health care, protections against outsourcing and wage increases despite Rite Aid's aggressive attempts to short-circuit their union movement in California with union-busters and intimidation. The union was persistent and creative over this long and costly battle, and found that reaching out to stockholders and board members can be a productive tactic in negotiations. 
http://www.alternet.org/news/150841/major_union_victory_for_rite_aid_workers_offers_roadmap_for_labor_movement_/

Court of Appeals Dismisses Monsanto’s Appeal of Biotech Beets Case, Preserves Victory for Farmers, Environment

A recent Court of Appeals opinion denying Monsanto's attempt to bypass legally mandated Environmental Impact Studies for GM Sugar Beets designed for human consumption is a victory in the battle against genetically modified biotech crops. The USDA willfully disregarded its legal responsibility to study the impact of this crop before permitting planting and the court has ruled that it must comply with the law. Apparently there have only been two EIS studies on the effects of biotech crops since they came onto the scene about 15 years ago, and they were both court-ordered. The USDA has consistently put the interests of Monsanto above those of the American people. Many battles remain in this arena and I also worry about how Supreme Court might rule should they hear such a case on appeal, but this is good news in the interim.
http://truefoodnow.org/2011/05/20/court-of-appeals-dismisses-monsanto’s-appeal-of-biotech-beets-case-preserves-victory-for-farmers-environment/

Why The US Government is Keeping You Vitamin D Deficient and Who Stands to Gain

A recent decision to lower the standard for levels of Vitamin D considered adequate by the Centers for Disease Control for good health have raised questions about conflicts of interest within the extremely secretive National Academy of Sciences. There is apparently a rush to patent several Vitamin D analog drugs, to treat Vitamin D deficiency, and this article speculates that the new lower levels for identifying deficiency are a deliberate attempt to create a market for the drugs when they are approved by the FDA. Whether or not you believe in this theory, the story raises legitimate questions about the motivations of scientists specializing in Vitamin D who are concurrently developing treatments for patent. The article also takes the CDC to task for failing to sound an alarm regarding the fact that 70% of the African-American population in the US are already Vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D deficiency is a major health issue related to osteoporosis, MS, poor prognosis in breast cancer treatments, cancer, cardiovascular disease and severe asthma among others.
http://www.naturalnews.com/032202_vitamin_D_deficiency_disease.html

Vitamin D Deficiency Information
http://www.webmd.com/diet/vitamin-d-deficiency

8 Possible Side Effects of Pesticides

This article was contributed by a reader and offers important information on the health risks that are connected to pesticide use in agriculture around the globe. I first read here about organ failure associated with pesticide use in India and several other specific side effects of our collective dependence on these agricultural chemicals.
http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/926/8-possible-side-effects-of-pesticides/

The Pesticide Action Network is a terrific advocate for public health and vigilant regulation and study of the dangerous chemicals commonly found in pesticides.
Pesticide Action Network

Pesticide Watch is another great resource for people concerned about the health effects of pesticides.
Pesticide Watch

Obama Justice Department Subpoenas New York Times Reporter In CIA Leak Case

The Obama Administration has been extremely aggressive in going after whistleblowers in court, having charged five persons with violating the Espionage Act (more than all other Presidents combined), and now they are going after journalistic sources. If the press is supposed to be the fourth pillar of our system of government, charged with keeping powerful interests honest (ha!), then protecting the freedom of the press and First Amendment rights are absolutely essential to the democracy.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/obama_justice_department_subpoenas_new_york_times_reporter_in_cia_leak_case.php?utm

Risk From Spent Nuclear Reactor Fuel Is Greater in U.S. Than in Japan, Study Says

This is an issue that should gravely concern us all. The largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet are stored at nuclear reactor sites, in spent fuel pools, all over the US. Apparently, when the reactors were conceived in the 60's it was assumed that spent fuel would be reprocessed to extract uranium and when that idea fizzled we never came up with another solution for dealing with this highly dangerous radioactive waste. This study urges swift action on the issue and I couldn't agree more that we have to bite the bullet and responsibly deal with the massive threat to the US population and humanity that the spent fuel represents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/business/energy-environment/25nuke.html?hp

Reports Detail More Drug Industry Ties to Medical Societies

More from ProPublica on the conflicts of interest that are rampant in the pharmaceutical and medical device arena. A number of medical societies accept more than half their total operating budgets from companies who market products that the societies evaluate and recommend to patients. This money, and the promotional opportunities it provides drug companies, raises serious questions about the veracity and independence of research and recommendations made by various medical societies.
http://www.propublica.org/article/reports-detail-more-drug-industry-ties-to-medical-societies

A Patriotic Duty: Repeal the Patriot Act

This piece points out that the Patriot Act was never about terrorism or Obama bin Laden per se, but rather the attacks on 9/11 provided an excuse to weaken Constitutional protections that had long been sought by law enforcement agencies in the War on Drugs. By throwing out protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the Patriot Act has over-whelmingly been used to pursue drug dealers rather than terrorists. Yet, we should all acknowledge that our own rights are threatened by this sweeping law that now allows warrantless wiretaps on any American in the government's overly broad War on Terror. Currently, provisions of the act are set to expire at the end of May and Congress is expected to vote a four year extension to these provisions with virtually no public debate.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/24-7

The GOP's Jail Sell

While we're on the subject of prisons I might as well shine some light on the feverish push to privatize state prisons across the country. The privatization bug is essential code for capturing public utilities, prisons and school systems for private sector profit, often subsidized with public dollars and defined by cost-cutting measures that may yield profit but invariably result in reduced standards for constituents. The example cited in this story in Arizona, a state where a 2010 report by the Department of Corrections estimated that private prisons cost $5-$8 more per inmate, provides a clear view of the sort of incompetence privatizations can deliver to the public.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/gop-prison-privatization-ohio-florida-minnesota

Justices, 5-4, Tell California to Cut Prisoner Population

Wow. This is a very big decision from the Supreme Court enforcing the integrity of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, and ordering the state of California to reduce its prison population or relocate prisoners to improve conditions. Two dissenters in the ruling, Scalia and Alito, shamefully conjured images of rampant criminal activity to result from the decision. This will no doubt spark a week or two of histrionic yelpings across the spectrum of the mainstream media, so we should all brace ourselves for the onslaught. I believe this is an important decision primarily because it reinforces a collective sense of morality, a system based on real-world principles, that has been sorely lacking in our country for quite some time. It gives me hope that we can reclaim some of the integrity that our system has discarded in pursuit of expediency over the past few decades.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24scotus.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

A Little Less Corporate Political Corruption

The Executive Order that Obama is apparently considering to make corporations disclose their campaign contributions for two years, an effort to mitigate the impact of the Citizens United ruling, would be a welcome and unexpected surprise action to put a light on corporate influence on our politics.
http://truthout.org/little-less-corporate-political-corruption/1306158084

The Regulators of Wall Street Want to Hear From You

I'm not sure the title of this Public Citizen letter writing petition is accurate, but it is undeniable that citizens should take action on the subject of Wall Street banking reform. If you've seen the brilliant and unassailably accurate documentary Inside Job, about the factors that caused the current recession after the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, you should have no doubt that we are all being robbed by the barons of the financial world. The ONLY way we can stop this from happening again and push back against the enormous power of the financial sector is to exercise our Constitutional rights of dissent and pressure regulators and elected representatives. As a people we have all become too passive (and ill-informed) and that has made it possible for interests motivated solely by greed to exploit the public trust. Enough is enough. If you care about the integrity of our financial markets and banking industry you MUST do something. In this case, you can take a minute or two to customize an email letter to Wall Street regulators. Then you can pester your friends and family to do the same. It's important and essential that people who know that we are being fleeced care enough to stand up and fight against those who would steal from our pockets and pensions if they can get away with it.
http://www.citizen.org/fix-wall-street-pay

Okay, two things; maybe the Regulators do want to hear from you because this is a public comment forum and, secondly, modifying these letters (to give them more import to the recipients) takes a a little more than a minute or two. Perhaps it took me five minutes to work through the seven different letters. Base language is provided for each letter and they have all been customized for the target agency. I simply added one or two editorial comments within the body of the letter provide by Public Citizen.

Here are the bits I worked into the letters. I think it's okay to use or modify these, or you can bang out something of your own to personalize your messages:

Overzealous deregulation of financial markets, and the exemption of derivatives from direct oversight and regulation have destabilized our markets and harmed many millions of people in the US and throughout the world.

We need to re-establish accountability and performance as the basis for compensation in the financial industry.

It is unconscionable, unfair and unethical that fortunes have been made and amplified on deals that were designed and expected to fail over time.

Let us not blithely reward unethical and opportunistic behavior by members of the financial community.

Yet, these rewards are not in any way based on longterm viability and performance of financial instruments, but rather solely on short-term, un-vetted sales data.

NSA whistleblower Tom Drake talks Espionage Act, 9/11, intelligence with 60 Minutes

A major 60 Minutes profile of the NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake makes it clear that the man facing 35 years in jail for violating the Espionage Act is being hammered by the government for speaking truth to power. In trying to reveal mismanagement at NSA and waste of taxpayer funds, Drake never released a single classified document. Yet, the DOJ is trying to silence him on a trumped up charge of taking two meaningless classified documents to his home. In reality, Thomas Drake, and his courageous collaborators, acted with great courage to defend the Constitution and the public interest. I hope people will watch this captivating indictment of prosecutorial abuse and pass it along to others. This man should NOT go to jail.
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/05/nsa-whistleblower-tom-drake-talks-espionage-act-911-intelligence-with-60-minutes-thin-thread/

Shameful Kowtowing to the Meat Industry: 147 Congressmen Diss Family Farmers

Politicians are overwhelming in the pocket of Industrial Agriculture factory farming interests that seek to control the entire US market. Protections designed to level the playing field for small farmers in the 2008 Farm Bill are opposed by a large contingent of Congress due to pervasive industry money and lobbying influence. The Food & Water Watch story contains a link to see if your representatives voted for or against the viability of small farmers.
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/shameful-kowtowing-to-the-meat-industry-147-congressmen-diss-family-farmers/

Toxin from GM crops found in human blood: Study

A study in Canada has found the presence of Bt toxin, widely used in GM crops, in human blood for the first time. Industry has claimed that the toxins would be broken down in the human gut but no studies have ever been performed by regulators to test the safety of GM food products in the US. The FDA and USDA are major promoters of biotech GM products and have failed to adequately protect the American people from a wide range of threats posed by GMOs. The mainstream press in the US is similarly aligned with the biotech industry and continually promotes GMOs to the public. Rest assured that there is Bt toxins in your gut too, if you eat the vast majority of non-organic foods sold in this country.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/toxin-from-gm-crops-found-in-human-blood/1/137728.html

Our Government Is Corrupt Through and Through -- Where's the Outrage?

A review of the conflicts legislators in America face immediately after election, the need to raise money for the next election, and how that impacts policy. The concept of 'state capture,' usually associated with Banana Republics, has been accomplished in the US through our election financing system resulting in overwhelming corporate influence in the political sphere. The corruption of our system extends to the Supreme Court where three justices routinely associate with conservative causes in clear violation of the Code of Conduct for United States judges.
http://www.alternet.org/news/150985/our_government_is_corrupt_through_and_through_--_where's_the_outrage/?page=1

Sweden heads for GM-free status: UK should follow Major company bans GM-fed pig meat

GM FREEZE is a UK-based advocacy group reporting on food issues related to GM crops and cloned animals in Europe and around the world. This story provides details of a consumer-based action in Sweden that has led to a ban on GM-fed meat in part of the country after major retailers began a policy of refusing GM products due to consumer activism despite the government's pro-GM policy. Perhaps direct action in US supermarkets calling for GMO labeling is the way to go here...
http://www.gmfreeze.org/page.asp?id=490&iType=

This week in the War on Women

Daily Kos gives us This Week In The War On Women, an extremist flood of actions from across the land that persecute women by denying healthcare and access to abortion. 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/21/977824/-This-week-in-the-War-on-Women?utm

A Doctor’s Push for Single-Payer Health Care for All Finds Traction in Vermont

I've been following this story for a while and it's good to see the NYT put a front page story on their website about Vermont's new single payer health insurance law. Now we need only to adapt this model for the entire nation and we could cut healthcare costs dramatically and expand coverage to the uninsured.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/us/22vermont.html?hp

Ransacked Nation: VERMONT MAKES HISTORY, PASSES UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE