Flu Warning: Beware The Drug Companies - The New York Review of Books Recaps The Flu Hoax, and Helen Names Heidi Jolson as the FDA Culprit

Helen Epstein of The New York Review of Books recently penned a thorough and enraging recap of the Tamilflu and Swine Flu hoaxes on the part of Big Pharma and how they evolved to a a multi-billion pay off for these companies.  This is an excellent slice of premium investigative journalism and I can't praise it more highly. If the Obama Justice Department knows even half what Helen Epstein knows, then we know for sure this is just another example of this administration turning a blind eye to criminal behavior (while persecuting legal medical marijuana dispensaries in California).

I had no idea, but it turns out that Relenza (GlaxoSmithKline) and Tamilflu (Roche) not only produced useless and ineffective anti-flu vaccines as part of their long term "pandemic preparedness" programs--which they later sold to the U.S. and other nations for billions--but according to Epstein's research, as made possible by Roche's branch in Japan (apparently not locked down into silence by Roche brass), these substances are actually the cause of neuropathic illness and death.  Over 20 cases of people dying from Relenza alone, suffocated alive. This is no joke, my dears.  As Epstein notes:

The active ingredient in Tamiflu was discovered in 1989 by an Australian biotechnology company that licensed it to the British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The company gave it the trade name Relenza, carried out clinical trials, and submitted the results to the FDA in 1999.26 The FDA scientific panel that reviewed this evidence was unimpressed; it noted that the drug—a powder for oral inhalation—had little effect on influenza symptoms and seemed to worsen breathing problems in people with asthma. The panel members voted 13–4 against approval, but the agency overruled them and approved the drug anyway. The head of the FDA’s antiviral drug program, Heidi Jolson, justified this decision on the grounds that Relenza might be useful for some patients, and even a weakly effective drug was better than nothing, given the fears then circulating about “avian flu.”

Working for Big Pharma and no doubt hoping for a revolving door payoff at the end, Heidi Jolson allows Relenza on the market.  By the way, why should an appointed bureaucrat have the power to overrule 13 scientists in the first place?  Who benefits?

And further:

In 2008, an article in the journal Drug Safety, signed by a group of Roche authors, claimed that rats and mice, both given a very high dose of Tamiflu, showed no ill effect.38 But according to documents submitted to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare by Chugai, the Japanese Roche subsidiary, the exact same dose of Tamiflu killed more than half of the animals. As they died, the rats exhibited many of the same central nervous system symptoms that Hama had described in his case series on the Japanese children.

So, Roche Pharma, everywhere but Japan, hid the fact that the real tests caused half the lab animals to die.  They deliberately falsified the results of Tamiflu tests they provided the FDA, and of course, they had their people on the job there, like Heidi, to make sure that no pesky scientists got in the way. But it goes deeper. The infiltration of GSK and Roche into places like the World Health Organization, and more, is documented by Epstein:

During the ten years leading up to the pandemic declaration of 2009, scientists associated with the companies that were to profit from the WHO’s “pandemic preparedness” programs, including Roche and GlaxoSmithKline, were involved at virtually every stage of the development of those programs. The companies funded the documents giving guidance on preparing for the influenza pandemic, in which the WHO recommended the stockpiling of Tamiflu and Relenza. Consultants drafted parts of these documents and joined WHO officials in fund-raising for the Tamiflu stockpile. Industry-supported scientists were also on the committee that issued the “pandemic emergency declaration.”49 That announcement caused developing countries to request assistance from the WHO’s Tamiflu stockpile fund, and these requests contributed to a tripling of the drug’s sales in 2009.50 By declaring a pandemic and linking the response to Tamiflu stockpiling, the WHO could not have done a better job of promoting Roche’s interests.

So there you have it.  Money, corruption, inFLUence. The U.S. gov bought off again, and again.

Read the entire article when you get the chance.  Roche and GSK are like viruses that infected the once-healthy bodies of places like WHO, FDA, and CDC. 

Where is the social vaccine we need to stop these people, I ask you?

Algonkian Writer Conferences Notes the Many Reasons Passionate Writers Fail to Publish

Algonkian Writer Conferences, in their study guide for the workshops and Write to Market, includes a really helpful piece on why passionate writers fail to publish.  Though kicking and screaming, I was forced to admit I found myself included in more than one of these (not all seven, but enough to make me nervous):

"INADEQUATE WRITING SKILLS OR STORYTELLING/ STRUCTURE PROBLEMS. In the case of the former, the writing itself does not display the energy, creativity, and polish necessary to convince an agent to go deeper."

Well, I have to say this was true during the early years of DAUGHTERS OF THE DREAMING LAND, but the problem was I didn't realize it.  My little writer's group (not my group from Algonkian Park), despite their wonderful nature, didn't know the difference between really competitive prose and adequate prose. I realized later that I had to write better than I had ever imagined. I checked out the Algonkian Writer Conference syllabus for answers to this issue and signed up. Their narrative assignments were challenging and bizarre, but it was a huge wake up call for me. 

"MISUNDERSTANDING THE MARKET.  Writers don't have a clue as to what types of first novels are currently being published in their genre."

This was true of me also, especially with my first novel which was a cozy mystery. I loved cozy for years and cut my literary teeth on badly writing my first cozy called The Big Julianne Murders. Not only was the title poor but my arrangement of the plot and other things was awful. I learned only later that I had gone about it all wrong, regardless of the number of cozies I'd read.  You just have to dive into the art of plot creation and concepts for your genre. It will not absorb into your brain parts unless you do.

"BAD ADVICE. Whether the source is an article, a friend, or a writer's conference, the writer has been told something that steered them wrong, or built a false expectation, or made them believe a man-bites-dog story will happen to them."

I think the worst advice I ever heard that nearly ruined me involved manuscript editing. A couple people told me not to worry about proofing so much because the publishing house editor would fix that.  Also, same with my title.  Don't worry about the title, they'll change it anyway.  Big mistake.  A bad title is a clear sign you are unfit for duty.  Fortunately, I wasn't that stupid.  My title has opened doors for me.

"IMPATIENCE = LOST OPPORTUNITY. The story is pretty good, fairly original, and the writing likewise, however, the writer is impatient and sends out the ms too soon. "

OMG, is this is me all over!!!  How I regretted sending out certain ms way too soon.  I cringed later when I realized what I had done. I thought I might even have to change my name.

"NO EDGE. The vast majority of first novel writers have not yet published work in viable short fiction markets."

Course, this isn't always important, but for the type of work I write (upscale fiction), it certainly is.  Only now have I begun working on lots of little short stories and I am sending them out, peppering the offices of short fiction journals.  Algonkian Writer Conferences taught me that publishers and agents want those creds for my type of genre.  No question!

Wish me luck, guys.

Fiction Writers and Platform: Some Useful links from Algonkian Writer Conferences

Marcela put it honestly if somewhat bluntly: If she had to make a decision between two equally good novels, and one author had a platform and the other did not, she'd choose the author with the platform every time.

Why? Because an author's having a platform means the likelihood of the publisher selling many copies of that novel increases.

Algonkian sent me this to post, and it's worthwhile.  Some useful links regarding the building of platform for fiction writers and aspiring authors:

http://www.redroom.com/blog/karen-dionne/the-fiction-authors-platform

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/Fiction+Writers+Need+Platforms+Too.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Get-Known-Before-Book-Deal/dp/158297554X/ref=as_li_tf_mfw?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=wwwwritersont-20&creative=391825

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2008/02/fiction-platform.html

Algonkian Writer Conferences - Using a "Pitch" to Perfect the Novel - Just my Experience at the SF Write and Pitch Conference, and in New York

So what do I know?  Not much more than the rest of you. I'm just a struggling writer.  Being a vocal supporter of Algonkian Writer Conferences, in part because my pre-history novel manuscript (DAUGHTERS OF THE DREAMING LAND) was discussed, dissected, and requested by a total of four editors and three agents at two different events (NYC Pitch and SF Write and Pitch Conference), I can't help but compare that experience, face-to-face, toe to toe, full of verve and great interaction, to the dull and feedback-less process of sending out query letters. At least with the live pitch to an editor or agent I know they are receiving it, whereas with the query letter, I know from experience that most likely, especially with the larger agencies, an assistant or intern on the other end is thumbing through my submission at light speed with a pink slip mentality because they have hundreds to get through before the end of the day. 

Not good odds, not at all, and very frustrating.

I cannot deny I've known a couple of writers who have done well that way, yes, but few and far between, and I know lots of great writers who cannot get a fair hearing.  IF you write the great query and IF the intern is paying attention and IF Jupiter comes close enough to Uranus then ... Well, all this is great, but even in a best case scenario, guys and gals, it presumes ONE THING IN PARTICULAR: that you already have a great novel capable of producing a great query in the first place.  Do you?  Are you sure?  I know I wasn't sure (after I had stopped kidding myself), and this is where the professional help of Algonkian Writer Conferences came in very handy, at least for me.  And I know it doesn't work for everyone, especially those looking for praise only, setting themselves up to leave very embittered and looking for revenge on Internet chat boards.

Nevertheless, I have picked up vibrations, here and there, from those who don't know better or who trip over themselves in ignorance and contradiction, that "pitching" itself might be considered a pointless skill.  That reminds me of the idiot (let's call him BOB or JANE) in my last writer workshop who proclaimed that flashbacks were a no-no. Wrong!  Just as wrong as anyone who claims pitching is pointless.  It's like saying a query is pointless.  It's a form of communication a writer must master, not only to look and sound professional (because every agent and editor out there assumes you're an ignorant amateur till you prove otherwise--God, I've learned that lesson!!!), but to properly communicate the most vital fictional components of the novel premise and plot that in turn will make your story sound like a product someone will purchase. As I've been told, and I've witnessed, you have basically 20 seconds to make an editor or agent believe you know what you're talking about. Once they get past that 20 seconds, you're on a roll, or you're dead. 

But back to having that great novel. What does the "pitch" have to do with it?  At the conferences I attended (under the pseudo Kathleen Vargas), the pitch model was used by the workshop leaders to dig deep into the novel and characters, to make certain all was working, and to ascertain whether or not the premise itself sounded commercially viable and market-wise.

Bottom line, folks, if you cannot conceive the major fictional elements of your novel and premise sufficiently well to write a short punchy synopsis, 150-200 words, with a cliff-hanger that makes someone interested in either reading or possibly buying your novel, then you don't have those elements in the novel. 

If it's in the manuscript, you can fit it into the pitch.  If not, no way.  You can't kid yourself ... Well, you can, but you lose. 

So write and pitch, explore that novel down to the core. Good luck out there, and special thanks to New York editors Hilary Teeman and Emily Griffin for their help in setting me on the rewrite course!

Love you all.  Comments welcome!

Tales of The Washington Revolving Door - Spoiled Fish John Sindelar of GSA Past, Now of Hewlett Packard, Works to Create New Leaders at the ELC Festival While Big Fish Orszag Revolves to Citigroup

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE .......................  August 30, 2010

Hewlett-Packard Agrees To Pay $55 MillionTo Settle Allegations Of Fraud

WASHINGTON – Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has agreed to pay the United States $55 million to settle claims that the company defrauded the General Services Administration (GSA) and other federal agencies, the Justice Department announced today. This settlement resolves allegations under the False Claims Act that HP knowingly paid kickbacks, or “influencer fees,” to systems integrator companies in return for recommendations that federal agencies purchase HP’s products.

I said this was an instance of "structural corruption" in public life that had become so taken for granted that DC insiders considered it beneath mention or notice. 

                                                           - James Fallows/The Atlantic

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Who is John Sindelar of Hewlett Packard, formerly of GSA? A schmuck of ages? An evil wizard with bad teeth? An overweight, weasel-wording, corporate wheel-greaser living out his twilight days? Who cares?  Hardly anyone, but that's not the point. The point here is to demonstrate the "structural corruption" that goes on at every level of government in Washington, from the most mundane (in the case of Hewlett Packard's John Sindelar) to the most influential (e.g, Peter Orszag of OMB).

Yes, It's the big guys and gals that make the news, people like Julie Gerberding of CDC who went to Big Pharma as her reward for pushing swine flu.  But it's the tadpoles, the "shadows behind the partition", the window tribe types like John Sindelar who are really running things, imploding their country a bit at a time like countless insects in the wood, providing the daily bridges between corporate America and the government that feeds their obesity.  And there are so many of them, hundreds, thousands of these revolving door bureaucrats (RDBs), recruited with a wink and a handshake at corporate-gov executive retreats, and over cocktails in D.C. watering holes, on and on, till finally, it becomes hard to see where government service ends and corporate dominance begins ... And wasn't that the plan all along?  Wink, wink.

Are we saying that John Sindelar, and/or guys and gals like him who used to "work" for the federal government, possibly helped pave the way for corporations like Hewlett Packard to defraud agencies like GSA of billions only to escape with a wrist slap and not a single prosecution? Are we saying that the Peter Orszags of the world, hired by bailed-out banking behemoths like Citigroup, live mainly to protect and serve the money interests of these behemoths as they bid defiance to the laws and spirit of this country?

You do the math. Examples of RDB action figures, Distinguished Fellows, corporate-gov executive hybrids, and all manner of species below. 

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First, John Sindelar himself (overweight middle-aged man in the center), and another dim bulb RDB, pretending to be experts on IT issues in the federal gov and generally doing what good corporate RDBs do, i.e., name drop, weasel word, slogan-ize, and blather out with things that are either so banal or obvious they are not worth hearing.

Be warned. You don't have to watch all of this. It's so boring you might entertain thoughts of suicide.

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And now, let's take a look at the RDB recruiting festival that creates executive leaders like the ones above.

Gleeful RDBs and Future RDBs With Name Tags

First, a caption for the smiling group of RDBs and future RDBs in the photo to the right :

"HP’s John Sindelar, photographic recidivist Alan Balutis, former Interior Deputy CIO Ed Meagher, GSA Office of Citizen Services Associate Administrator Dave McClure, and senior GSA adviser Josh Sawislak. John reports that he and DoE’s Pete Tseronis, Lockheed’s Dan Norton, and PR guru Steve O’Keefe came in four under in best ball on the Golden Horseshoe course earlier in the day."

Isn't everyone just having a grand old time?  We've got Lockheed and Hewlett Packard's John Sindelar (far left) chumming and golfing and blue-suiting around with a whole host of potential RDBs. What could they be talking about?  What is their purpose? Is it all just to have fun? And where did this pic and story come from?  It came from FED TECH BISNOW reporting on the corporate-gov golf-and-food fest known as the 19th annual Executive Leadership Conference.

Jeez, who can have a qualm or any dyspepsia over something as innocent as an Executive Leadership Conference?  Who can be against such leadership?  Don't we want these great leaders to earn their wings and do the best for America?  Here are some more leaders:

Great American Leaders

As the caption states: "We snapped DoD Deputy CIO Dave Wennergren, former DoT CIO (and now CSC’s) Dan Mintz, and ELC program chair (and Cisco’s) Alan Balutis. Intellectuals, all, Dave tells us he spent several hours hiking yesterday in Prince William Forest (we had to look it up), and Dan visited Jamestown with his wife. As for Alan, anyone whose job title is “Distinguished Fellow” could have napped all afternoon and still seemed smart."

Wait a minute, is that Dick Cheney's estranged half brother on the left, and isn't that guy on the right one of the boors in the video? Whatever ... So here we have the corporate-gov DOD guy, and a CSC corporate-gov guy from DOT, and this boring guy from Cisco brown-nosing and backslapping around, just doing his job. CIO and CIO and Distinguished Fellow, and it all gets blurry who works for the American government and who works for the corporation doing business with the American government.  They're all beginning to look alike, act alike, talk alike ... It's scarier than the old Patty Duke show.

Btw, here is a portion of the roster of the ELC planning committee for the event above, from ACTGOV.COM.  Please note corporate and gov and coporate-gov and gov-corporate types not only in bed together, but brushing their teeth together, feeding each others, wiping each other's asses free of gold residue, and generally providing mutually beneficial therapy in the most innocent and congenial of ways, all for the sake of enabling future American leaders. How selfless and patriotic can they be?

Conference Chairs:
Kathy Conrad, Jefferson Consulting
Dave McClure, General Services Administration

Vice Chairs:
Darren Ash, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
John Sindelar, HP Enterprise Services

Plenary Sessions:
Andrew McLauchlin, CGI Federal
Bill Piatt, General Services Administration

Tracks:
Tim Long, Ziemba Waid Public Affairs
Ramon Barquin, Barquin International
Lawrence Gross, Department of the Interior
Kathleen Turco, General Services Administration

Tracks? ... And there's John Sindelar again! He just keeps popping up doesn't he?  And he gets to mingle with all his friends from GSA, being an ex-GSA guy himself, plus his friends at GSA get to schmooze and plan with consultants and all kinds of corporate weevils doing business with the American government.  I tell ya, if this isn't an example of organizational democracy in action working for the benefit of all, I don't know what is!

Maybe if peeps like Sindelar do a great job at their mother corporations they can get hired by Peter Orszag at Citigroup, move up to the big boys who don't just defraud the American taxpayer, but who actually run the show.  Maybe? ... Maybe?

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Corporate Mega-Monster Meg "Evil Meg" Whitman Lies Profusely About Jerry Brown

According to one of my fav places for political facts (is there such a thing?), FACTCHECK.ORG, they report that mega-monster Meg "Evil Meg" Whitman is running absurdly false attack ads (what a surprise!) about her opponent Jerry Brown. As FACTCHECK notes:

"Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr., the Democratic candidate for governor of California, has been involved in politics for more than four decades. And it’s all been a "failure," according to an ad from Meg Whitman, his GOP opponent. But it’s Whitman who fails when it comes to the facts."

Anyway, FC does a great job, as usual, of researching all of Mega Meg's lies, and more than ever, it demonstrates the nearly unbelievable ruthlessness of modern day campaigners when it comes to inventing outright falsehoods regarding political opponents. Is this a surprise?  No. But for some reason, the increasing shrillness and lying desperation of it all, coupled with the fact that real issues are left to rot on the wayside even more than usual, can't help but once again make me weep for the demise of this nation.  Does that sound cornball?  Well, yeah, but it's the truth.

Some vintage Evil Meg:










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Love For Wits.Com - Can a "Love For Wits" Dating Site For Witty and Smart Peeps Save Us All? Is Intelligent Online Dating Even Possible?

A Plethora of Wits

I admit I've never used a dating site, not because I don't need to, or because I've heard too many horror stories (dating life in general can be terribly challenging), but only because I've gone to some of these places and felt the sleaze coming off the page. What do I mean by "sleaze"? It's the LOUD feel to the sites themselves, as if I'm watching a slick advert put on by Dow Chemical or BP or some corporation equally abominable. Plenty of Fish is a bit more sedate in terms of appearance (though tacky!), but based on feedback from friends it should be renamed "Plenty of Fools" (or F**K Heads, depending on who you talk to); and though it's hearsay, the horror tales regarding yet another icky dating site, e-Harmony, convinced me to run screaming. No one could figure out why in the name of Hera this e-Harmony database kept trying to force them into totally disharmonious relationships.  All in all, the concept of intelligent online dating seemed like a pipe dream.

An associate of mine recently introduced me to another dating site, and naturally I thought, oh yeah, right, but the name, Love For Wits, attracted me, and after I clicked to their home page I got a good laugh at their tag line: YES, THERE IS INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH AND IT'S ON LOVE FOR WITS.COM SEARCHING FOR OTHER INTELLIGENT LIFE. This pulled me in. I can't resist something different, apparently intelligent, and amusing at the same time; and for a dating site, this was RADICAL. How dare they attempt to separate themselves from the greater mass of humanity!  Nevertheless, I was prepared to be disappointed. And I find it hard to accept, but I wasn't. The "origin story" of the site was appropriately black with humor and understated (my kind of material) and without even being a member I was able to get a good feel for the place, plus check out the various embedded videos and film uploads, and peruse the blog feeds (Love For Feeds) currently there which contained all manner of humorous and cultural newsbits from theater to current events. The latter was definitely a big bonus for me and indicated a bunch of peeps at the controls who were sympathetic with my tastes and needs.

Will Love for Wits save us? Will it be a panacea of love and companionship that us "intelligent and/or witty" types need it to be? I expect it will give us a good start and the rest is up to us. You know, kinda like life?

So, okay, I'll admit it now, I plan to join in a couple days. I actually believe that intelligent online dating is possible. Course, you won't know it's me, unless you really know me personally. With any luck I'll meet someone equally smart and witty? ... Wait a minute, is that even possible? ;-)

btw, a humorous dating clip I found on the website:

A New Leader in The Struggle to Assert Female Chauvinism: James Bennet of The Atlantic

It appears that male bashing has become generally accepted by American culture in new and alarming ways, even among males one might consider educated, or even enlightened. No where can a better example of this new chauvinism be found than in the editorial mind of James Bennet, editor chief of The Atlantic. According to him, the problems of the world in general, or at least America, are due to the fact that too many men run things. Is James Bennet asserting directly or indirectly that the problems of the human race, suffered for millenia, are not due to anything as simple as human nature, but to men only?  Are women are in no way responsible? Yes, men only, it appears. In praise of the Hanna Rosin article, THE END OF MEN, (filled with adorable and warm anti-male venom carefully and artfully interwined with yellow journalism techniques and failed attempts at objectivity--even her BLS statistics are wrong), James Bennet of The Atlantic goes on to state confidently in his editorial:

"As usual, our politics and corporate boardrooms are lagging indicators of what is happening in the society, where women already hold most positions in middle management and would be overwhelming our universities were it not for stealthy affirmative action on behalf of overmatched young men. Small wonder the Tea Party is mostly male ..."

Well, let's digest this. JB seems to be saying that the only reason most males are allowed in colleges is because a "stealthy affirmative action" is going on. Um, this comment is on the level of a Tea Party mentality, isn't it? I mean, don't women overwhelmingly run the admin and admissions offices in colleges? Are they in on the conspiracy? Who is running this stealth program to squeeze in incompetent and biologically inferior males at the cost of keeping good women out? Who, I ask you? Oh, and btw, like Hanna Rosin, he plays fast and loose with the real stats.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, managerial occupations as a whole are 37% women.  Sorry, Jimmy boy, wrong again!

According to James Bennet's bio in The Atlantic:

"Upon accepting the position [as editor], Bennet told a Times reporter that he saw the Atlantic job as "a chance to help, encourage and preserve the practice of serious, long-form journalism."

Okay, that's really laudable. Bravo. It's just too bad that's all BS, first class ... And just so you don't get it wrong, I am totally for women flexing their brains and competing with men on all levels.  There is better balance when women are part of a workforce or a decision-making body. 

What we don't need as a species, James Bennet, is manginas like you spreading disinformation and hate.  Women don't need you to foment on their behalf. 

You give us a bad name.

The End of Men or The End of Sense? Hanna Rosin Tries to Make Boobs Out of Her Own Husband and Son

After writing a provocative article to boost Atlantic's sagging sales, Hanna Rosin uses the male members of her family to pose as the primitive and false stereotypes she wishes them to be, i.e., blundering and foolish males. Though a weak attempt is made to produce an air of comic relief, the true intent of Hanna Rosin shines through.  As she and her daughter martyr themselves repeatedly, her husband and son flounder like buffoons in comparison to the superior women.  See for yourself.

Obama Orders Killing, Death, Assassination or Whatever You Want to Call it Of American Citizen

I can't believe it either!  He's trying to look tough to the Tea Party?  From the Times in UK:

The Obama Administration has taken the unprecedented step of authorising the killing of a US citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, linked to the plot to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day. The move to place Mr al-Awlaki, 38, on a hit list was taken after a White House review concluded this year that he had moved from inciting terrorist attacks to taking part in them. 

The decision is extraordinary not only because Mr al-Awlaki is believed to be the first American whose killing has been approved by a US President, but also because the Obama Administration chose to make the move public.

According to other sources around the web, this guy isn't really linked to much of anything.  He seems like another quasi-harmful bumbler that the U.S. intelligence community and the White House wish to parade  around like they made some real big discovery that justifies the current and future billions in more defense and "Home Security" spending.

Is Obama losing it?  This is certainly a publicity stunt of bizarre and scary dimension one would expect from a Bush or Cheney.  But Obama, ordering the death of an American citizen who will have no recourse to defend himself?  Where are we going from here?  Is this one more step towards tyranny?

Merck Purchases Former "Public Servant" Dr. Julie Gerberding of CDC and Makes Her Vaccine President - Big Pharma Wins Again

What a surprise! The American government policy of public servants in positions of power using their office to further the profit motives of private corporations has now spread like a virus (that started in the Pentagon decades ago) to the Center For Disease Control (CDC). How so, you ask? It's pretty simple. Let's recall that CDC fanned the demons of Swine Flu even after it became obvious it was no more pandemic or dangerous than the average common cold. Matter of fact, it was the mildest pandemic on record in the past century, right? So dear Julie Gerberding, director of CDC under Bush, pushed Big Pharma vaccines on millions of terrified Americans, earned billions in government and consumer bucks for Big Pharma, and now her reward is here. 

Her employer Merck realized that a mover-shaker like Julie Gerberding knows the ropes, has great one-phone-call connections inside the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO), and just as importantly, the image of concern necessary to convince millions more Americans in the future to become unreasonably terrified of sore throats, enough perhaps to once again wrench hundreds of thousands of scared children out of school, close down offices, and panic everyone, including politicians, into investing more and more billions every year in Merck vaccines.

You might even say that CDC functions effectively as the primary marketing department for Big Pharma. And remember, the corporate government complex has learned well that if you keep America afraid all the time you can damn well do whatever you want while they're vibrating with distraction.

Is all this so unusual? No. If you are CDC or FDA employee and you wish to triple your salary, you become a sales person for Big Pharma. I'll bet Julie Gerberding is making five times or more than what she earned at CDC. Write her and ask her, will you?

I wonder what animal will be next to market flu vaccines for Merck and Julie Gerberding. We've seen birds, swine, flesh-eating bateria, so what is left? Crocodile flu? Gerbel flu? Pelican paralysis disease?

Regardless, as an intelligent commenter noted in the Reuters article on Julie Gerberding of Merck:

Will the truth hurt the new mistress of Merck? I doubt it. I'm sure she is using all the classic inner defenses and denials to excuse herself.

Gerberding was a good friend to Merck. It bears asking, however, with all the cases implicating Merck in fraudulent activity, how is it that Gerberding now feels comfortable joining the Merck team? The losers in this revolving-door practice are Americans who still trust their health to a 6th-grade concept of democracy and accountability.

It hurts. I need a vaccine against the pain of the truth.

And now we have Dr. Julie Gerberding cleverly reading her telerprompter and pitching Swine Flu vaccine while "concerned Americans" (paid actors) ask her questions as if they really care. It's all so carefully orchestrated and non-invasive that I want to just hug her and buy her a drink.

Oh, and PLEASE NOTE that towards the end she tells you not to run to the doctor's office, just take it easy. It's so serious that you can avoid the doc, but you definitely need a vaccine anyway. Huh?

Obama Fiddles While Afghanistan Suffers Karzai Burns - The Art of Stuffing the Election Board

Assuring that the main cause of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan will continue unabated  and cost more American lives and billions more Treasury dollars flushed into shareholder pockets, President Obama does nothing to deter the megalomaniac Karzai from corrupting the EEC by appointing his own stooges.  Yes, Dems, please use this as one more reason to stop the Obama worship.  This president is just as asleep at the wheel as George Bush--the only difference being he can at least appear more intelligent.

 According to RAWA NEWS:

The president Hamid Karzai has changed a law to give himself control of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), a body that threw out more than half a million votes cast for him in last year’s fraud-tainted poll. 

The amendment allows Mr Karzai to appoint all five members of the ECC, whereas under the previous law, three members were appointed by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

A former senior UN official in Afghanistan Peter Galbraith said the West should withhold the cash necessary to bankroll future elections until the ECC is reinstated to its original make-up.

The international community “should insist there should be a truly independent election commission, not one appointed by him”, Mr Galbraith, who resigned over last year’s fraudulent poll, told the BBC.

Unless the ECC continued to have three of its five members appointed by the United Nations, “taxpayers in the US and elsewhere should not be asked to pay for phoney elections”, he said.

What does all this do?  It helps to assure that the corporate war hawks in the Pentagon can rest easy, knowing their president will do nothing to slow or stop the process of blood letting in Afghanistan.  He's leaving the solution all to them: WAR, WAR, and MORE WAR.

American awake!

Leslie Margolin and Fellow Blue Cross Executive Sociopaths Become Poster Children For Insurance Company Greed

Look upon the face of evil.

Who me? See Leslie Margolin act offended! See Leslie Margolin defend unconscionable acts of corporate greed as biz-as-usual (remind you of the Air Evac apologists?). Isn't this America? Who is George Bailey anyway and why are you picking on us? We deserve to make our shareholders happy, raise our own bloated salaries, put thousands of people out on the street without care, don't we? Don't we?

As Anthem Blue Cross President Leslie Margolin defended her actions and those of her company she sounded like the typical corporate automaton. So what if we're making a lot of money, it's standard for the industry. "Standard for the industry" ... can't you see the film someone will make of this in future? Perhaps they will split screen and compare Leslie Margolin's comments with those of Marie Antoinette on the eve of the French revolution. And make no mistake! We need one ... Are you listening, Mr. President? Nothing short of enforceable regulation will stop these people. Anyone who argues otherwise is ignorant, simply a fool, or a stooge of the industry.

Some facts about Leslie Margolin's company, from the Examiner:

Recently, California's insurance regulator found Anthem has committed more than 700 violations over the past three years, including late payment of claims and misrepresenting facts or insurance policies to consumers.

Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats found internal documents showing 39 executives got paid more than a million dollars and, in the last two years, it also spent $27 million on 103 executive retreats.

Anthem's reason for the rate hike, according to a press release: "Unfortunately, in the weak economy, many people who do not have health conditions are foregoing buying insurance. This leaves fewer people often with significantly greater medical needs in the insured pool."

And below is a video of Leslie Margolin talking about the need for Health Care Reform. Note her ability to avoid specifics and focus on rhetoric. And aside from their recent actions, keep in mind that she and her pals approved a $2 million advertising blitz that derailed a 2007 campaign to require all Californians to obtain health insurance and force insurers to issue policies to anyone, regardless of health:

The Corporate Supreme Court Slides a Knife Into The Back of Democracy, and All For The Sake of "Free Speech"

How noble of Scalia and Roberts and the rest of the corporate suck-up bunch. I'd give anything to know who has been courting them to make certain this decision was made. Regardless, I can't say it better than Politico.Com did, so here we go:

Some of the of biggest special interest groups in Washington are expected to take full advantage of a Supreme Court decision Thursday enabling them to spend millions on attack ads in the 2010 midterm elections, even as the Obama administration and congressional Democrats scramble to close the gaping holes the ruling carved into campaign finance rules.

Thursday’s highly anticipated 5-4 decision in a case brought by the conservative nonprofit group Citizens United reversed decades of law restricting corporations and unions from spending their general funds on ads supporting or opposing candidates. And it left liberals and advocates for stricter campaign finance rules predicting an explosion of corporate-funded ads attacking Democrats.

“We are moving to an age where we won’t have the senator from Arkansas or the congressman from North Carolina, but the senator from Wal-Mart and the congressman from Bank of America,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Campaign strategists and lawyers who advise corporations, unions and independent political groups on political spending also predicted a surge in ads as a result of the decision.

Ben Ginsberg, a top Republican election lawyer, predicted the decision would render “obsolete” so-called 527 groups, which helped shape the 2004 presidential election with brutal attack ads that pushed the bounds of election law.

Ads like those aired by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacking 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry can now be paid for more directly by for-profit or nonprofit corporations or trade groups.

In place of 527s, Ginsberg predicted an expanded role for groups set up under sections 501(c)4 and 501(c)6 of the Internal Revenue Service code, which he said require “meager disclosure requirements of their donors.”

Ginsberg also predicted the decision would be good for consultants who advise outside groups on their spending and media strategies. One Democratic consultant professed to making “tons of sales calls” after the decision, calling it an “economic recovery package” for consultants.

What many strategists and lawyers said they don’t expect to see is American International Group spending millions on ads attacking congressmen who criticized its bonuses or medical firms seeking vengeance on President Barack Obama for pushing to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

Instead, they think deep-pocketed companies seeking to target Obama or congressional Democrats will funnel their cash to existing or yet-to-be-created coalitions — such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America or the National Association of Manufacturers — that are expected to take advantage of the new spending flexibility provided by the ruling.

In recent years, shareholders have independently challenged executives to disclose, explain and justify their participation in partisan politics. For now, that mostly includes making political donations. The scrutiny would intensify significantly if it also meant paid television advertising.

Most corporate leaders of publicly held firms long ago grew leery of playing in politics in a big way lest they put off customers, though the Chamber and other umbrella groups could shield some businesses from exposure by pooling money and taking full credit or blame for how it is spent.

At the same time, campaign finance experts expect there will be some privately held firms with ideological bents that now will engage more directly in campaigns.

“The greatest opportunity for money to flow is corporations giving to trade associations and advocacy groups to have them air the ads,” said Michael Toner, a former Federal Election Commission chairman who advises Republican committees and candidates on campaign finance laws. “They’re the ones that could really benefit from this. The key will be how much money can they amass, and how much are they willing to spend?”

But the new landscape could also benefit unions and big-spending outside groups that tend to support Democrats, such as the Sierra Club and NARAL Pro-Choice America, though such groups tend to have less access to cash than do corporations.

The White House on Thursday joined with Democratic lawmakers, who were facing a treacherous 2010 electoral environment even before the decision, in pledging to push through legislation to minimize the impact of the decision before the midterm elections.

But it’s going to be tough for them to significantly alter the landscape before Election Day — some states hold primaries as early as next month. And there hasn’t been any political will for major campaign finance reform since the 2002 overhaul known as the McCain-Feingold act.

The long-awaited court ruling stems from a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission brought by Citizens United. It alleged its free speech rights were violated when the FEC moved to block it from using corporate cash to promote and air “Hillary: The Movie,” a feature-length movie harshly critical of then-senator — and current secretary of state — Hillary Clinton during her 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The FEC asserted that the movie expressly opposed Clinton’s election and therefore was subject to campaign laws that bar the use of corporate cash to air election ads and that require donor disclosure. Citizens United disagreed and sued.

The court divided along ideological lines in the case, with Justice Anthony Kennedy casting the deciding vote and writing the majority opinion. He was joined by Roberts and fellow conservative justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia.

“No sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations,” Kennedy wrote.

After the ruling, some groups that advocate stricter campaign finance rules called for a constitutional amendment specifying that for-profit corporations are not entitled to First Amendment protections, except for freedom of the press.

Among the more incremental legislative options congressional Democrats and the White House are considering to stem the flow of money into campaigns are proposals to publically finance congressional elections or require corporations to disclose their political activity to shareholders.

And Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday pushed the idea of requiring shareholders to vote before a corporation could give money directly to a candidate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who blasted the ruling as paving the way for “special-interest dollars to dictate the details of public policy,” said House Democrats would “work with the Obama administration and explore legislative options available to mitigate the impact of this disappointing decision.”

And Obama, in a statement accusing the court of giving “a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics,” said he had instructed his administration “to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue.”

White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen, the Obama administration’s lead on campaign finance issues, has been in contact with Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) about tougher campaign finance rules.

The president’s strongly worded statement echoed both Obama’s campaign rhetoric about the need to reduce the role of special interest money in politics and his recent efforts to tap populist anger.

He called the ruling “a major victory for Big Oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

But Obama has largely disappointed advocates for stricter campaign finance rules, who point out he has yet to fulfill a campaign promise to overhaul the presidential public financing system.

“This is a test of the commitment of the White House and congressional leadership toward having reasonable limits on money and politics,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyists for Public Citizen, a nonprofit group that pushes for stricter campaign finance rules.

Chinese Teenager, Zhang Xuping, Assasinates Communist Boss - Thousands Grateful

By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 21, 10:07 am ET

BEIJING – When Li Shiming was stabbed through the heart by a hired assassin, few of his fellow villagers mourned the local Communist Party official many say made their lives hell by seizing land, extorting money and bullying people for years.

Instead, villagers in the northern town of Xiashuixi have made Li's teenage killer something of a local hero. More than 20,000 people from the coal-mining area petitioned a court for a lenient sentence.

"I didn't feel surprised at all when I heard Li Shiming was killed, because people wanted to kill him a long time ago," said villager Xin Xiaomei, who says her husband was harassed for years by Li after the two men had a personal dispute. "I wanted to kill Li myself, but I was too weak."

The murder trial has again cast a harsh light on abuses of power by communist cadres and the frustration many ordinary Chinese feel with a one-party system that sometimes allows officials to run their districts like personal fiefdoms.

China's leaders have identified corruption as a threat to the country's progress, but an opaque political system dominated by the ruling Communist Party — which brooks no dissent — and the lack of an independent judiciary contribute to the problem.

In the case of party secretary Li, the young man who confessed to the stabbing — 19-year-old Zhang Xuping — has been sentenced to death for the September 2008 killing, his mother and lawyer said Wednesday. The sentence was quietly handed down last week and an appeal was filed this week, they said.

Zhang Xuping was paid 1,000 yuan ($146) by another villager, 35-year-old farmer Zhang Huping, to commit the murder after Li allegedly harassed the farmer for years, local newspaper reports said. The elder Zhang was reportedly routinely detained on trumped up charges ever since he led a group of farmers to seek the help of provincial authorities after Li razed 28 acres of trees belonging to them without permission or compensation in 2003.

The teenager entered a school where Li was attending a meeting, found the official alone and stabbed him through the heart. Li staggered out of the building and into his luxury sports utility vehicle but died before he could make it to a hospital, reports said.

The case quickly turned into an outpouring of sympathy for the young killer — and expressions of hatred for Li.

Zhang's trial, which was originally scheduled for August, had to be postponed to late November because thousands of people showed up outside the courthouse wanting to watch the proceedings, news reports said.

Nearly 21,000 people from the area around Xiashuixi petitioned the court for leniency for Zhang — to no avail.

In Xiashuixi, villagers contacted by the AP said that for years they had lived in fear of Li, who they say extorted money and used his influence to have those who resisted him detained or jailed.

Zhang Weixing, 58, said Li illegally seized his land of 3.3 acres and built houses on it three years ago, and he hired thugs to beat him, his wife and children when they tried to stop him.

"When we heard Li Shiming was dead, we felt happy because he did so many evil things and really made us villagers suffer," said Zhang Weixing, who is unrelated to the family of the accused, by phone. "We all hated him."

During his trial, the defendant apologized to Li's family, the state-owned Beijing Youth Daily newspaper said. But Li's eldest son rejected the apology in court and said he hoped judges would sentence his father's killer to "death by firing squad."

Li's death has dealt an immeasurable blow to the family, the son said, adding that his younger brother and sister were unable to focus on their studies and may stop going to school for the time being. Attempts to reach the Li family by phone were unsuccessful, and family members have not publicly addressed the allegations that he was corrupt.

Zhang's case echoes two other instances of ordinary Chinese who became anti-heroes after killing people in positions of power.

In June, a Chinese woman who fatally stabbed a party official to fend off his demands for sex was freed by a court in a decision that was likely made to avoid a storm of criticism.

But in 2008, Yang Jia, a man who confessed to killing six Shanghai police officers in revenge for allegedly being tortured while interrogated about a possibly stolen bicycle was executed despite an outpouring of sympathy.

Unlike those cases, China's state media after initially following Zhang's case did not report his conviction nor his death sentence — a likely indication the government ordered a media blackout.

A Beijing-based lawyer and legal blogger, Liu Xiaoyuan, said the court should have taken public opinion into account given the large number of people who had spoken out in Zhang's defense.

"If the village secretary had acted illegally and aroused the anger of the mass of villagers, then lenient punishment should have been considered by the court," Liu said. "It has become the will of people. The death sentence is too heavy."

The case reflects the desperation that China's rural poor are driven to when bullied by their leaders, wrote Chinese social commentator Yan Changhai on his blog: "Zhang Xuping is guilty. His biggest crime is that he dared to resist a bandit-like official, and refused to be obedient and to be a slave," Yan wrote.

Yan blamed the murder on collusion between officials and local police and courts.

"If the authorities did not indulge Li Shiming's evil deeds, if even one of his evil deeds was punished by law, he would have avoided death under Zhang Xuping's knife," he wrote.

Jon Burge - A Modern Day Torquemada Cop: Man who alleges police torture free after 23 years

From Associated Press
January 14, 2010 7:39 PM EST

CHICAGO (AP) — A man who contends Chicago police tortured him into confessing to a murder he did not commit walked out of a courtroom a free man Thursday after more than 23 years behind bars.
Assistant Special State's Attorney Andrew Levine said prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against Michael Tillman after concluding that without the coerced confession there was not enough evidence to convict him.

"I'm just glad justice finally prevailed," said 43-year-old Tillman who was convicted of taking part in the 1986 rape and murder of Betty Howard who lived in a building where he had worked as a handyman. The Chicago woman's attackers tied her to a radiator in her apartment building, sexually assaulted her then shot her to death.

Tillman smiled widely as he left a Cook County courtroom and said that until recently he had not believed he would ever be free.

In court papers, prosecutors said Tillman's confession had been a "product of coercion" and that he had been the victim of a "pattern and practice of abuse" that had existed in a particular police station on the city's South Side.

The papers filed this week do not detail what Tillman — along with dozens of other black men who were interrogated in Area 2 Headquarters in the 1970s and 1980s — allegedly went through at the hands of Chicago police detectives.

Tillman and his attorneys say that, in the course of three days in 1986, detectives turned an interview room into a torture chamber.

Police, they said, beat him with a phone book, punched him in the face and the body until the floor was slick with his blood. They put a gun to his head and a plastic bag over his head and even poured 7-Up into his nose.

"It was a crude form of waterboarding (in which) they induced the feeling of suffocating or drowning," said one of his attorneys, Locke Bowman.

Finally, as Bowman and others say happened to many other black suspects, Tillman told the detectives what they wanted to hear.

Another man, Clarence Trotter, remains in prison for Howard's murder. In court papers, prosecutors say there was substantial evidence, including fingerprints, linking him to the crime.

Tillman's release is just the latest chapter in a story of police abuse that has dogged the department for decades.

In 2006, authorities confirmed what the black community on the South Side had known for years: that the police routinely tortured suspects in Area 2 to extract confessions.

Prosecutors appointed to look into allegations surrounding the unit and its then-commander, Jon Burge, found that some of the allegations were true but that the cases were too old to bring criminal charges.

Subsequently, a number of convictions have been reversed, some suspects have been freed and millions of dollars have been paid out to settle lawsuits of men who claim they were wrongfully convicted.

Burge faces federal charges that he lied under oath about the use of torture on suspects.

Earth to Obama, Your Theatrics Are Not Fooling Us!

Our talk-the-talk BS artist in the White House, Barack Obama, stated at a recent jobs summit: "The single most important thing we could do right now for deficit reduction is to spark strong economic growth."


Um, well, Mr. President, you did everything but spark growth with that last $800 billlion or so stimulus package (created by corporate lobbyists and special interests to make a trap for fools). Instead, you dangerously increased the national budget deficit even more! Can you even do the math? ... Now your favorite Wall Street buddies (who bribe you with millions in party benefits then diss you by not even showing up to meet with you at the White House) like CitiGroup, GS, BOA are in the process of desiring to give huge chunks of bailout money back (related perhaps to the severity and threat of the recent Judge Rakoff decision?), money these banks never needed or deserved, money YOU let them have.

In the above meeting, Obama had the unbelievable nerve to state that the federal government pulled these banks from the brink with public money, when WE ALL NOW KNOW that they never needed it in the first place! He creates his own reality as he goes, just like George Bush. He makes me want to have a tantrum!!!


Just so you know, Mr. President, your act isn't fooling everyone. You're watching the polls. You see us getting cranky over it, and you adjust your speechmaking accordingly.

New Insanity: Why is Carol Moore Still Heaping Blame on The Norfolk Four and Now Blaming John Grisham?

"Let him walk in our shoes, let's see how he would feel," a sobbing Moore told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her Pittsburgh home. "This is nothing but political and John Grisham."

The above statement, to me, is just as ludicrously false as saying that the earth is flat because Obama has decided it is. How can Carol Moore, mother of the victim in the Norfolk Four case, be so woefully ignorant of the facts? She reminds me of a deluded child talked into believing her nursery school teacher turned into a catlike demon and flew after her! Scary, very scary. And people like her even sit on juries. How do you think Paul Shanley landed in prison?

This poor dear blames the author John Grisham for getting the evil perps out of jail cause he's so stupid, you know, and just looking for attention, and he doesn't care if vicious killers go free.

According to Grisham, commenting on the Norfolk Four case to the Post:

It's the most egregious case of wrongful conviction I've seen, and I travel around the country listening to stories about these cases.

1. – John Grisham SOURCE: The Washington Post

I'm not saying Carol Moore is intentionally lying to get attention or a place on a talk show, or perhaps a book deal, but I am saying I totally and utterly repudiate her contentions that the innocent men of the Norfolk Four had anything to do with her daughter's murder. I'm sure she was lied to by the police and prosecutor, or at least misled.

Please, Carol, really look at the facts. Stop this public display.

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Ding Dong, The Prince of Darkness is Dead - Robert Novak To Burn in Hell

Okay, you guys, now's your chance to call me a meanie witch for taking such a caustic view towards the death of Robert Novak, but I have to be honest, he should have died much sooner. When I think of all the lies, damage, and toxic spray of intentional disinformation put out by this evil wizard, I can't help but be wishful. Late in his career he outed Valerie Plame for being a CIA agent, and thus assisted Karl Rove in his retaliation against her husband.

This despicable act alone brands Novak as one of THE most heartless, unethical, and yes, un-American jerkweeds to have ever lived and lied.

Good riddance. Let his "friends" and Republicans belch forth with as much BS praise as they wish. It's all BS after all, just like the phony attacks of indignation he forced us to frequently suffer.

Last Three of Norfolk Four Finally Released - Attorney General Bill Mims Still Pretends Like They Are Guilty

In one of the most atrocious cases of police misconduct and prosecutorial arrogance, four men were wrongly convicted in 1997 of a murder rape in Norfolk, VA. Because they did not have wealthy parents (like the Duke lacross players), the public and the press have generally ignored them. Who cares, right? They probably had it coming? No way.

You can follow more details about the case out on Google and here. Basically, these guys were falsely accused and subjected to incredible police torture and deprivations until they confessed to a crime they didn't commit. Unfortunately for the VA Attorney General's office, the real culprit was caught, and not only confessed but proclaimed none of the Norfolk four were present. Also, only the real culprit's DNA was found on the scene.

The Norfolk Four were so incredibly innocent that two dozen ex-FBI agents in the Richmond area signed a petition and sent it to Governor Kaine asking for full pardons, because their own investigations proved the men were in no way responsible, but only railroaded by the cops then tortured into confessions. The shamefulness of the crime against them goes unpunished till this day.

In an act of cowardice, Governor Kaine "conditionally" pardoned the Norfolk Four only days ago, but this means they are still treated like ex-cons, made to answer to a Parole Board, and so forth. They will never have normal lives without a real pardon. Kaine has assured them a living death not much better than prison.

But since when does a politician these days have any real courage, I ask you? Well, I guess even a coward like Kaine has more stomach than Attorney General Bill Mims who said in response to the release:

The Office of the Attorney General has represented the interests of the commonwealth and sought justice, as we are bound to do by law, and vigorously defended the multiple convictions of these individuals.


I don't even think Nifong admitted he was wrong about the Duke lacross players. So what does it prove? That guys like Nifong and Mims, who preside over the unjust prosecution of innocent people, will never admit they are wrong. They can't admit it. They won't.

Obama Vs. Freedom of Speech - White House Attorneys Karen Dunn and Ian Bassin Attempt to Censor PCRM Posters in Union Station

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
(PCRM), in a laudable and smart effort to help encourage legislation that will/might actually get junk food out of schools and usher in a new era of nutritious food (God help us all! Is it possible, what with the bribes junk food corps give county school systems? ... Oh, there she goes again!), placed huge posters in Union Station in D.C. with poster children saying:

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S DAUGHTERS GET HEALTHY SCHOOL LUNCHES. WHY DON'T I?

Good question? Are healthy school lunches only for the elite in wealthy prep schools while mainstream kids are lured more and more into unchecked obesity?

I hope not. Regardless, no sooner did the posters go up than Neal Barnard, President of PCRM, was contacted by White House attorneys Karen Dunn (Associate Counsel) and Ian Bassin (Deputy Associate) who wanted Barnard to remove the posters because the "president's children are off limits." Now, this does smell like an effort by White House subordinates to curry favor by drumming up a non-issue and playing crusader rabbit to impress Barrack and Michelle.

Is that so Karen? Ian? Or are you under orders from Michelle? ... And by the way, do you support the Bill of Rights?

Nevertheless, Karen Dunn and Ian Bassin are employees of Obama and therefore Obama is answerable for their actions, and right now his employees are acting very much like the lackeys of any dictator, such as Castro e.g., who do not wish to be criticized or look unfavorable in any manner that can be avoided or negated via the use of force, i.e., if White House legal muscle can intimidate Neal Barnard into removing the offending speech, so much the better. And besides, how dare this Barnard practice free speech and reveal that Obama's daughters get elite treatment and that most of American children do not! But wait, I thought the Obamas were democrats ... uhhhhhh.

No doubt the heat on Barnard will increase, but I sincerely applaud his efforts to resist the White House pressure despite various wags predicting hateful retaliation by Obama (see original Post article in paper).

If Neal Barnard is pissing off the Obama White House, I could not be happier. And I have a message for all White House employees: your boss is slowly murdering your country, in a manner as reckless and sociopathic as George Bush Jr. Why participate in the wreck of your nation?

God speed.

Xu Zhiyong Jailed by Chinese Tyrants

True to form, the tyrants of China have again jailed, in Kafkaesque fashion, a human being who routinely tries to genuinely help the downtrodden--unlike the Chinese government that maintains the manufacture of the downtrodden. This time it is Xu Zhiyong, a prominent rights defender and legal scholar who has represented migrants, death row inmates, and even the parents of babies poisoned by toxic food.

He was stolen in the night for "tax evasion" but in reality because he pissed off the Communist leadership by showing them up for the frauds they are. And how? By trying to get them to live by their own laws. And he is not the only one. Other legal spokespeople for the common good have been jailed and beaten by the government, including Gao Zhisheng, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind man.

And this is a country that we continue to coddle, ignoring their extreme abuses and tyrannical bullying.

Well, Obama wouldn't even punish the Bush era officials who committed crimes. Why should he rock the Chinese boat? After all, they do spread lots of green around D.C., rather like the Saudis.

Madness: Kenneth Feinberg, Obama's "Pay Czar" Pretending to Work For The Public Good by Begging Wall Street Banks To Stop Giving Pay Bonuses

In a farce likely to not raise eyebrows among America's mainstream sheeple (people plus sheep--in case you forgot), Kenneth Feinberg--Obama's Jewish guy in charge of "pay" in the context of Obama's growing-more-absurd-by-the-day bailouts of multibillion corporations that never needed the money to begin with--has been trotting to the plush corporate offices of the absurdly wealthy in an alleged attempt to get them to please? please? please? discontinue their biz as usual of taking American tax dollars and using them to bail out hundreds of needy and utterly deserving Wall Street executives and others with billions in bonuses (to attract and keep top talent, of course).

What? you ask. Are you kidding, Liz?

Come on! READ the Wall Street Journal, or the Post, or some source that at least approaches the terrible truth of the fiasco of American government and the relentless looting of the treasury and America's future.

I am so sick of you Obama-philes and your endless sucking up to an illusion that has already betrayed us again and again. You are no better than the demented Bushies of Texas, esp in the old days. Please WAKE UP and protest the selling of your future and the coming of 60% tax rates that will be needed sooner or later to pay for all this corporate looting!

Anyway, back to Kenneth Feinberg ... He has met privately with execs at the offending companies, "urged them" to "rework" guarantees for big earners. Who are we kidding? These people are stealing from us because they are bold enough to do so and because they know OBAMA IS ON THEIR SIDE AND THERE WILL BE NO REAL REPERCUSSIONS!

Think I am just big capping here because I am possessed or hysterical or both? No. Again, look at the facts. For example, those thieving bastards, the Bank of America (their HQ in D.C. located directly across from the Treasury Building--what a coincidence!), got tens of billions in bailout from Obama (yes, Bush gave birth but Obama baptized the crime) and what did they do with the ill-gotten gains? They bought Merrill Lynch and gave the ML execs OVER FIVE BILLION in bonuses. And illegally at that, against SEC rules. And what punishment did they get? They didn't have to admit anything, and they paid a $33 million wrist slap fine ... Arguably, with our money. Don't believe it? Research the facts, buckos!

This madness is beyond madness. One criminal group after another pirating billions and billions and more billions from America's coffers right under the nose of Mr. Change himself, Barrack Obama, and while we are fighting two ruinous wars and suffering a deficit nearing two trillion.

Madness, madness!!!

In the Rage to Consume American Tax Dollars, Congress and Federal Agencies Spar for Hundreds of Millions in Earmark Loot Every Year

Is the American government the biggest criminal enterprise in human history?

Don't believe it?

Well, the ever-bold circus of pirates who pick our wallets are at it again. A new revelation? Senator Bill Nelson, such a great Dem, wants earmarks that senators use to reward the various corporations and special interests that bankrolled their campaigns, to go underground in Committee reports, i.e., he advises they don't even have to appear in a bill, and this in an effort to prevent Federal agencies from pirating the huge piles of cash for themselves and their own pet projects that in turn are being milked by grossly overpaid contractors in places like DOD and elsewhere.

From the NYT:

For example, the Department of Defense withheld $100 million from about a dozen earmarks, on the grounds that there was no statutory guideline for its action because the earmarks were included in the reports accompanying the spending bills and not the bill itself.

Mr. Nelson said the solution would be to specify in legislation that earmarks in committee reports should be treated as if they were written into the spending bills.

Uhhhhhh, so what's wrong with this picture of an American senator? Earmarks in committee reports? How simple and sleazy is that?

God, I hate these people!

Go back to sleep America.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics Defeated by Daily Show in Effort to Force Obama Administration to Act Less Bush-like and More Like a Democracy

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics stymied again. Poor FOIA! At least someone is trying, but the judiciary is apparently becoming just another corrupt arm of corporate America.

Politico.Com says it best. This is unf'nbelievable! Obama is acting more and more Bush-like everyday. If this does not help convince you Dems of the fundamental dysfunction of the Illinois corruption machine in the White House, what will? Or is this just simply an act of cowardice? Or is it further evidence of the corporate-ocracy at work, i.e., regardless of regime, the trends continue ...

Rebound marriage, America!

Here we go:

Wrap your head around this: The Obama administration wants to save former Vice President Dick Cheney from the likes of "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart.

That was the thrust of arguments the Justice Department presented Thursday seeking to prevent the release of an interview Cheney gave in 2004 to Special Counsel Pat Fitzgerald as part of his investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson.

In an afternoon U.S. District Court hearing in Washington, Judge Emmet Sullivan presided as Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith defended the government’s refusal to release the details of the Cheney interview. David Sobel, an attorney for the group suing for the documents, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was there to argue in favor of disclosure. Here’s how it went:

Sullivan asked if President Barack Obama’s appointees stood by the Bush administration’s steadfast refusal to make the Cheney interview public, noting, “there’s a new administration.”

“This has been vetted by the leadership offices,” Smith said. “This is a department position.”

“It is disappointing that the new administration apparently is picking up where the old one left off,” said Sobel.

AND FURTHER:

Sobel argued that the government’s stance would render the records of any kind of White House-related investigation off limits to the public — not just an inquiry into a sensitive issue like the disclosure of classified information.

“The argument would apply to a murder in the White House, selling drugs in the White House, bribery in the White House,” Sobel said. “We would be carving out the White House ... for special treatment.”

Sobel also said it was "unseemly" for the court or the Obama administration to be predicting that there would be illegal activity involving White House officials.

HumanEvents.Com Plays Host To "Weekly Alerts" From Chuck Norris and Miscellaneous Other Far-Right Media Moronics

No, really, you can sign up! How thoughtful Chuck looks? He's jealous of Joe the Plumber ... No kidding!
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CHUCK NORRIS FACTS!

# There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

# Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

# There is no chin under Chuck Norris’ Beard. There is only another fist.

# Chuck Norris has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.

# The leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart Disease 2. Cancer. 3. Chuck Norris

# Chuck Norris doesn’t go hunting.... CHUCK NORRIS GOES KILLING.

# Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean.

# Crop circles are Chuck Norris’ way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie down.

# The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably.

# Contrary to popular belief, Chuck Norris, not the box jellyfish of northern Australia, is the most venomous creature on earth. Within 3 minutes of being bitten, a human being experiences the following symptoms: fever, blurred vision, beard rash, tightness of the jeans, and the feeling of being repeatedly kicked through a car windshield.

# If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, “Two seconds ‘til.” After you ask, “Two seconds ‘til what?” he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

# When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has not had to pay taxes, ever.

# The quickest way to a man’s heart is with Chuck Norris’ fist.

# Chuck Norris invented Kentucky Fried Chicken’s famous secret recipe, with eleven herbs and spices. But nobody ever mentions the twelfth ingredient: Fear.

# CNN was originally created as the “Chuck Norris Network” to update Americans with on-the-spot ass kicking in real-time.

# Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.

# Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress.

# What was going through the minds of all of Chuck Norris’ victims before they died? His shoe.

# Chuck Norris is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.

# Police label anyone attacking Chuck Norris as a Code 45-11.... a suicide.

# Chuck Norris doesn’t churn butter. He roundhouse kicks the cows and the butter comes straight out.

# Chuck Norris doesn’t wash his clothes, he disembowels them.

# A Handicapped parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Chuck Norris and that you will be handicapped if you park there.

# Chuck Norris will attain statehood in 2009. His state flower will be the Magnolia.

# Chuck Norris once bet NASA he could survive re-entry without a spacesuit. On July 19th, 1999, a naked Chuck Norris re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3000 degrees. An embarrassed NASA publically claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.

# Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.

# It takes 14 puppeteers to make Chuck Norris smile, but only 2 to make him destroy an orphanage.