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

Recount ends, gives Prosser the win in Supreme Court race

I've been following the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and recount and am saddened by this report concluding that conservative Justice David Prosser has won a new 10-year term. This is a bitter disappointment and may have severe consequences as legal challenges to anti-labor and environment regulations work their way to the Supreme Court. The Court now has a clear 5-4 conservative majority and I'm not sure what recourse citizens in Wisconsin will have to challenge their rulings or change its composition. With the US Supreme Court firmly established as a champion of corporate 'individual' rights, we are continuing to lose the legal battle for social justice in America.
http://www.defendwisconsin.org/2011/05/20/recount-ends-gives-prosser-the-win-in-supreme-court-race/

Connecting the Dots: Novel GMO-Based Bug Threatens U.S. Food Supplies

A Professor Emeritus and senior plant pathologist from Purdue University, Dr. Don Huber, warns that a new organism spawned by glyphosate (the primary ingredient of Roundup) has infected GM corn and soy feed and poses a grave threat to livestock and agriculture in the US. But, the government has turned the other cheek to the scientific data and approved two new glyphosate (Roundup) dependent crops, GM Alfalfa and GM Sugar Beets, despite the clear evidence that glyphosate has led to a 20% infertility rate in cattle and dairy herds, and an abortion rate of 45% in some animals. I'm very happy to see this story on HuffPost and hope it gets more mainstream attention as it is a critical issue for all of us. Included in the piece is a link for co-signing a letter to halt new GM crop planting until independent peer-reviewed studies are completed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-rose-levy/connecting-the-dots-novel_b_861897.html

Dr. Huber explains the science behind threat from Monsanto's Roundup and GMOs to infertility and disease - video
http://vimeo.com/22997532

GMOs, Glyphosate and Tomorrow 
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/May2011_Huber.pdf

How Monsanto Might Destroy Itself
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-monsanto-may-destroy-itself.html

Four more years! (Of the Patriot Act ...)

Not only was the Patriot Act extended by Obama, but it's powers were expanded with little debate or press coverage by his administration. The fundamental legal foundation of our democracy has been put at risk due to the over-zealous anti-terrorism laws enacted in response to 9/11. There must be a reaffirmation of the privacy rights of American citizens and the scaling back of wholesale government surveillance, without warrants or probable cause, or the concept of true democracy in America will be nothing more than a cruel joke.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/05/21/patriot_act_extended/index.html

TIME’S UP: OBAMA IGNORES WAR POWERS ACT FOR LIBYA

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is intended to require a vote in Congress for approval to engage in war on behalf of the US. With Obama's assertion that our involvement in Libya does not constitute 'war,' we are at risk of ceding unilateral control of our armed forces and the power of the military in the Executive branch. This makes it easier to use force and what we have now is continuous military operations ongoing throughout the world. We should insist on Congressional approval for military actions as a brake on our increasing tendency to deploy armed forces to address international problems.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/times_up_obama_ignores_war_powers_act_for_libya_20110521/?utm

FDA agents launch covert ops against D.C.-area raw-milk buying club

The FDA has engaged in a number actions against natural food and raw food providers and coops around the country. I will be posting additional stories on this issue as I find it odd, and alarming, that such investigative resources, including undercover operations and armed raids, should be mounted by the agency against such innocuous threats as raw food coops. Perhaps the threat they are responding to is the one posed by a growing coterie of citizens who believe there are too many chemicals and GMOs in industrial foods and have rejected the government-approved food policies of the nation. 
http://www.grist.org/food/2011-04-29-picture-this-fda-agents-slinking-through-md-backyards-to-grab

Chief Offshore Drilling Regulator Criticizes Lack of Oversight for Contractors

Regulations for offshore oil drilling are lax and pertain only to operators, not the legions of contractors who actually operate the wells. This became apparent in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf, and needs to be remedied with new regulations and oversight. It is not enough to simply give industry the responsibility of regulating their contractors - voluntary reporting and policing by corporations does not work.
http://www.propublica.org/article/chief-offshore-oil-drilling-regulator-criticizes-lack-of-oversight-and-prom

DuPont Ignores Catastrophic Liability at Shareholders Meeting

This report is about a month old but I wanted to put it up because not nearly enough attention is given to the chemical manufacturing industry and the safety of chemical plants in this country. While there are certainly some chemicals that are essential in today's society we should not lose sight of the fact that chemicals are pervasive in our food and environment in America. We have the highest cancer rates in the world and potential time bombs like the plant featured in this story all over the country.
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/dupont-ignores-catastrophic-liability-at-shar/blog/34463