Paul Towers - New Evidence Links Common Herbicide to Cancer and Hormone Disruption

Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) Paul Towers, Pesticide Action Network/ Nov. 14, 2011 http://www.panna.org/

Thousands Urge EPA to Discount Flawed Science on Syngenta’s Atrazine

WASHINGTON - November 14 - As EPA reconsiders the science on atrazine, new findings highlight the link between low-level exposure to the nation’s most widely used herbicide and adverse human health effects, including cancer and altered hormones. At the same time, the chemical’s manufacturer, Syngenta, continues to influence scientific analysis of the chemical, downplaying evidence showing that atrazine is harmful.  

“Syngenta has misrepresented and obscured the science, leading federal officials and the scientific community astray as we look to understand the full scope of the atrazine problem,” said Dr. Margaret Reeves, PhD, senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network. “EPA’s decisionmaking on atrazine should follow the science. That’s the best way to ensure farmers, farmworkers and rural communities are protected.”

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Simon Johnson - Wall Street v. Elizabeth Warren

Monday 14 November 2011

by: Simon Johnson, The Baseline Scenario

http://www.truth-out.org/wall-street-v-elizabeth-warren/1321282551 

Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS group has launched the first attack ad [4]against Elizabeth Warren, presumably because she is now running hard for the Senate in Massachusetts.  This ad is not a big surprise, but the line that Mr. Rove takes could well backfire.

The ad states, “we need jobs, not radical theories and protests,” so we can break the argument down into three separate parts.

First, who destroyed more than 8 million jobs in the United States – and plunged us into the deepest and longest lasting recession since the 1930s?  Surely this was not Ms. Warren, who was just a law school professor, in the run-up to 2008.

The ugly underbelly of corporate news is coming to light. Can you help sustain truly independent journalism? Click here to become a Truthout Member! [5]

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Washington's Blog - COVERUP: Are Fukushima Reactors 5 and 6 In Trouble Also?

Are All 6 Fukushima Reactors In Trouble? 

By Washington's Blog 

Global Research, November 14, 2011

Washington's Blog 

Everyone knows that Fukushima reactors 1-3 have melted down, and the fuel pool at reactor 4 is ruined.

But reactors 5 and 6 have been almost entirely ignored since the earthquake because – we were assured – the reactors were in controlled shutdown prior to the earthquake, and so all was safe.

However, there are rumors of problems.

For example, Fukushima Diary notes:

On Tepco’s press release data of 4/25/2011, Iodine-133 was measured at intake of reactor 5 and 6.

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Mike Whitney - Big Finance Moves In for Eurozone Regime Change

November 14, 2011

by MIKE WHITNEY 

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/14/big-finance-moves-in/

Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have both been forced from office and replaced by representatives of big finance. Mario Monti, who will replace Berlusconi, was formerly the European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission and a member of the Bilderberg Group. He is also listed on Goldman Sachs board of international advisers.

Lucas Papademos, who will replace Papandreou, was formerly the Vice President of the European Central Bank (ECB), and served as Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 1980. He’s also been a member of the Trilateral Commission since 1998.

It’s also worth noting that the ECB’s new president, Mario Draghi, is a trustee at the Brookings Institution, a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, and a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.

Global banking is an incestuous business where pedigree is everything. One’s personal history indicates their commitment to the system and whether they can be trusted to implement the policies that directly benefit finance capital. This new group of so-called “technocrats” will use their power to impose harsh austerity measures aimed at crushing the unions, dismantling the pension system, and privatizing public assets. Their belt-tightening policies will intensify the slump, shrink government revenues, increase unemployment and foment social unrest. As more of the eurozone’s leaders are replaced by bank hirelings, opposition to further eurozone integration will appear in the form of nationalist groups demanding a withdrawal from the 17-member monetary union. Peaceful protests will turn in pitched battles with police and state security forces as working people fight to have their voices heard. These confrontations will grow more commonplace as the economy deteriorates and desperation increases. Here’s an excerpt from an article in the World Socialist Web Site titled “Greece and the Dictatorship of Finance”:

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Alliance for Natural Health - Breaking News: Outrageous New Attack on Dr. Burzynski

Alliance for Natural Health  On November 14, 2011

http://www.anh-usa.org/new-attack-on-dr-burzynski/

The pioneering cancer doctor is a target once again.

Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD, is a biochemist practicing in Texas who developed (using his own money) a nontoxic gene-targeted cancer therapy calledantineoplastons [2]. It has been shown to effectively help cure some of the most “incurable” forms of terminal cancer.

Dr. Burzynski had tried to get the FDA to review and approve antineoplastons since 1977, to no avail. To make sure he would not get into trouble for using the experimental therapy in his practice, his legal team confirmed that he was acting within the law and could use antineoplastons in his own practice “to meet the immediate needs of patients.” But in the 1980s the Texas Medical Board (TMB) charged him with breaking a law that didn’t actually exist and tried to revoke his medical license. Numerous investigations later—including an appearance before the Texas Supreme Court—found no violation of any law or standard of care. The TMB came up empty-handed.

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Marie Diamond - Bank Of America Makes Millions Charging Fees To Withdraw Unemployment Benefits

Published on Monday, November 14, 2011 by ThinkProgress

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/14/367467/bank-of-america-unemployment-benefit-fees/

by Marie Diamond

Late last month, a national backlash forced Bank of America to abandon its plan to charge customers $5 a month to use their debit cards. But Huffington Post reports that the corporation has quietly been mining other sources of fees, preying on its most vulnerable customers to rake in millions in revenue:

Shawana Busby does not seem like the sort of customer who would be at the center of a major bank’s business plan. Out of work for much of the last three years, she depends upon a $264-a-week unemployment check from the state of South Carolina. But the state has contracted with Bank of America to administer its unemployment benefits, and Busby has frequently found herself incurring bank fees to get her money.

To withdraw her benefits, Busby, 33, uses a Bank of America prepaid debit card on which the state deposits her funds…Busby visits the ATMs in her area and begrudgingly accepts the fees, which reach as high as five dollars per transaction. She estimates that she has paid at least $350 in fees to tap her unemployment benefits. [...]

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Olafur Arnarson and Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson - "Vulture Capitalism": Iceland’s New Bank Disaster

A Dress Rehearsal for Greece and Italy? 

By Olafur Arnarson and Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson

Global Research, November 15, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27673 

The problem of bank loans gone bad, especially those with government-guarantees such as U.S. student loans and Fannie Mae mortgages, has thrown into question just what should be a “fair value” for these debt obligations. Should “fair value” reflect what debtors can pay – that is, pay without going bankrupt? Or is it fair for banks and even vulture funds to get whatever they can squeeze out of debtors?

The answer will depend largely on the degree to which governments back the claims of creditors. The legal definition of how much can be squeezed out is becoming a political issue pulling national governments, the IMF, ECB and other financial agencies into a conflict pitting banks, vulture funds and debt-strapped populations against each other.

This polarizing issue has now broken out especially in Iceland. The country is now suffering a second round of economic and financial distress stemming from the collapse of its banking system in October 2008. That crisis caused a huge loss of savings not only for domestic citizens but also for international creditors such as Deutsche Bank, Barclay’s and their institutional clients.

Stuck with bad loans and bonds from bankrupt issuers, foreign investors in the old banks sold their bonds and other claims for pennies on the dollar to buyers whose web sites described themselves as “specializing in distressed assets,” commonly known as vulture funds. (Persistent rumors suggest that some of these are working with the previous owners of the failed Icelandic banks, operating out of offshore banking and tax havens and currently under investigation by a Special Prosecutor.)

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F. William Engdahl - Russia's High Stakes Energy Geopolitics

Nord Stream, the huge Russian-German pipeline project, began delivering gas to the EU 

By F. William Engdahl 

Global Research, November 14, 2011

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27653

On November 7 the first of two pipelines for Nord Stream, the huge Russian-German gas pipeline project, began delivery of gas. The event was no minor affair. German Chancellor Merkel and Russian President Medvedev along with the prime ministers of France and the Netherlands and the EU Energy Commissioner formally opened the first of two 1224-kilometre pipelines at Lubmin in northern Germany, beginning delivery of the first gas direct from Russia’s Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field in Siberia to Germany.

Nord Stream was not cheap. It cost a total of more than $12 billion for the complex 760 mile long undersea pipeline through the Baltic Sea from Vyborg near Russia's St Petersburg to north eastern Germany. It was laid in remarkable time and with extraordinary environmental precautions to insure protection of sea life, a precondition set by several EU Baltic countries. When the second pipeline is finished in late 2012, Nord Stream will be able to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year, almost ten percent the entire EU annual gas consumption, or roughly one third the entire current gas consumption of China.

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Alliance for Natural Health - ADA Claims We’re Lying. So Why Can’t They Rebut a Single Thing We Said?

Alliance for Natural Health USA On November 14, 2011

http://www.anh-usa.org/ada-claims-were-lying-so-why-cant-they-rebut/

They call our statements “erroneous,” “ridiculous,” “untruths,” “falsehoods,” and “outright lies,” but each of our “wild accusations” are solidly documented!

Last week we ran an article about ReallyEatRight.org [1], a website designed to shine light on the American Dietetic Association’s partnership with the junk food and pharmaceutical industries and its attempts to monopolize nutrition services. In response, Dietitians in Nutrition Support (a dietetic practice group of the ADA)posted a counter-attack [2], which contained a letter signed by the president of the ADA, accusing us of presenting a “one sided and misleading portrayal of ADA” and of having “a hidden agenda.”

Our agenda is open and transparent. We want the ADA to stop fueling the obesity and diabetes epidemic through their associations with Coca-Cola (allowing Coke to create a program about “urban myths” about the safety of food ingredients, which concluded that fluoride, sugar, artificial colors, and non-nutritive sweeteners are perfectly fine for children [3]), cereal manufacturers General Mills and Kellogg’s, candy maker Mars, and Unilever, the multinational corporation that owns many of the world’s consumer products brands in foods and beverages.

The chair of the ADA practice group, whose focus is on giving nutrition support to individuals in inpatient and outpatient settings, including home care and pediatrics, said, “ANH has criticized ADA in the past—and will likely do so in the future—for our alleged efforts to suppress ‘nutritionists’ from earning a living.” (Notice those condescending quotation marks around “nutritionists”?) Well, that’s the other part of our open and transparent agenda: We want the ADA to stop convincing state legislatures that only dietitians can dispense nutritional counseling at the state level.

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Phil Rockstroh - The Police State Makes Its Move: Retaining One's Humanity in the Face of Tyranny

Published on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/15

by Phil Rockstroh

For days now, we have endured demonstrably false propaganda that the fallen soldiers of U.S. wars sacrificed their lives for "our freedoms." Yet, as that noxious nonsense still lingers in the air, militarized police have invaded OWS sites in numerous cities, including Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, and, in the boilerplate description of the witless courtesans of the corporate media, with the mission to "evict the occupiers".

Hundreds of NYC riot police forcibly evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park early on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011. U.S soldiers died protecting what and who again? These actions should make this much clear: The U.S. military and the police exist to protect the 1%. At this point, the ideal of freedom will be carried by those willing to resist cops and soldiers. There have been many who have struggled and often died for freedom--but scant few were clad in uniforms issued by governments.

Freedom rises despite cops and soldiers not because of them. And that is exactly why those who despise freedom propagate military hagiography and fetishize those wearing uniforms--so they can give the idea of liberty lip service as all the while they order it crushed.

When anyone tells you that dead soldiers and veterans died for your freedom, it is your duty to occupy reality and inform them of just how mistaken they are. And if you truly cherish the concepts of freedom and liberty, you just might be called on to face mindless arrays of fascist cops and lose your freedom, for a time, going to jail, so others might, at some point, gain their freedom.

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