"Margaret Kimberley" - Freedom Rider: Occupy Wall Street, Denounce the Democrats

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

If the Occupation Wall Street is to be truly independent of both banker-funded political parties, they will have to include the Democrats in their denunciations. There has been precious little direct criticism of the “other” pro-Wall Street party at Liberty/Zuccotti Park. “Words like breaking up the concentration of wealth and power will be meaningless without a more pointed critique of the political system, a critique which should be no respecter of persons or party.”

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

“The only way to protest income inequality or bailouts of the financial services industry is to protest against the people in power, even when they happen to be Democrats.”

In 2009, the New York state legislature imposed a tax surcharge on residents earning

$1 million or more per year. This “millionaire’s tax” was passed with the proviso that it expire on December 31, 2011. When Democrats in the state capital proposed extending this tax on the rich, Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo said no, and the surcharge was history.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters held a march, dubbed the millionaire’s march, to demand that the rich pay their fair share of taxes. They marched past the New York City homes of billionaire David Koch, News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase. For some strange reason, they did not march past the offices of the Democratic governor.

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Progressive Radio Network Host Glen Ford from Black Agenda Radio, Mondays @ 4pm(EDT") - What a Whopper! U.S. Throws All the Demons in the Mix for the Mother Of All Anti-Iran Psy-Ops

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

To foment hysteria against Iran, “the administration is cooking up an almost comically infernal witches brew just in time for Halloween.” So fantastic is the American story of an Iranian assassination scheme, one is tempted to laugh – except that the farce shows how eager the Obama administration is to create war scenarios out of thin air. It is a psychological operation of the absurd, one that only “the typical American” will believe.

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The whole thing smells more like the FBI’s schemes to frame Black men in Miami and Newburgh, New York, for terroristic attacks that never did, or could, happen.”

Who said Barack Obama would bring sobriety and dignity to U.S. foreign policy? The president’s men, and Top Woman Hillary Clinton, have thrown every stereotypical demon of middle American nightmares into the psychological operations gumbo, to create a war hysteria against Iran. No reflexive terror button is left unpushed, no racial hysteria unexploited. Bubble, bubble, boil and trouble, the administration is cooking up an almost comically infernal witches brew just in time for Halloween.

What a confabulation! There’s the Mexican drug cartel hit men, the specter of a bomb exploding in a crowded, upscale Washington eatery, plus attacks on Israelis and, of course, in the background, the elite Quds unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. And if you believe the government story - well, that proves you are the typical America, and any idiot can keep you in a state of endless war.

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"Maryn McKenna" - Antibiotics: Killing Off Beneficial Bacteria … for Good?

• 
   By Maryn McKenna 

• August 26, 2011  | Wire Magazine

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/killing-beneficial-bacteria/

It’s an accepted concept by now that taking antibiotics in order to quell an infection disrupts the personal microbiome, the population of microorganisms that we all carry around in our guts, and which vastly outnumbers the cells that make up our bodies. That recognition supports our understanding of Clostridium difficile disease — killing the beneficial bacteria allows C. diff room to surge and produce an overload of toxins — as well as the intense interest in establishing a research program that could demonstrate experimentally whether the vast industry producing probiotic products is doing what it purports to do.

But implicit in that concept is the expectation that, after a while — after a course of antibiotics ends — the gut flora repopulate and their natural balance returns.

What if that expectation were wrong?

In a provocative editorial published this week in Nature, Martin Blaser of New York University’s Langone Medical Center argues that antibiotics’ impact on gut bacteria is permanent — and so serious in its long-term consequences that medicine should consider whether to restrict antibiotic prescribing to pregnant women and young children.

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"Tracy Sherlock" - Are Co-ops the Solution to Occupy Wall Street Woes?

Published on Monday, October 17, 2011 by Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/solution+Occupy+Wall+Street+woes/5560495/story.html

Alternative business model called mechanism for democratizing the economy

by Tracy Sherlock

It's a business model in British Columbia that controls more than $10 billion in assets, employs 13,000 people and returns all profits to members. The model governs enterprises in banking, housing, retail and health care. Fully one-third of British Columbians are members in at least one of the 700 operations operating in this model: the co-operative.

 For John Restakis, executive director of the B.C. Co-operative Association, co-ops are a mechanism for democratizing the economy, something the folks participating in Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Vancouver could turn to as a solution to their grievances.

"The whole point of Occupy Wall Street is reacting against corporate structure and the fact that people have no control over the economy is what's at the heart of it," Restakis said. "Co-ops are a concrete way to address that."

Co-op Week in B.C. runs from today until Sunday and the United Nations has declared 2012 the international year of the co-operative to raise public awareness of this alternative business model and its contributions to poverty reduction and job creation.

"Co-operatives are a reminder to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility," UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon said on the UN website.

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“Michael Spence” - The Global Jobs Challenge

By Michael Spence

Project Syndicate, Monday, October 17, 2011

http://www.nationofchange.org/global-jobs-challenge-1318867455.

Over the past three decades, hundreds of millions of new workers have entered the global economy. They arrived with various levels of education and skill, and over time have generally gained in terms of “human capital” – and in terms of value added and income. This has brought a tremendous, and ongoing, growth in income levels, opportunities, and the size of the global economy. But these new workers have also brought more employment competition and significant shifts in relative wages and prices, which is having profound distributional effects.

These massive structural changes in the global economy present three great employment challenges worldwide, with different countries facing their own variants.

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"John Nichols" - Why Cornel West Was Arrested in Memory of MLK, in Support of the Occupy Movement

By John Nichols

http://www.nationofchange.org/why-cornel-west-was-arrested-memory-mlk-support-occupy-movement-1318868491

On the day that President Obama and others celebrated the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the dedication of Washington's King memorial, Dr. Cornel West was a few blocks away—celebrating King with activism on behalf of economic justice and the "Occupy" movement.

After attending the dedication of the King memorial, West joined a "Stop the Machine! Create a New World!" protest march.

On the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, with fellow activists, he called out the high court for making decisions that allow corporations to dominate the economic life and the politics of the nation.

"We want to bear witness today that we know the relation between corporate greed and what goes on too often in the Supreme Court decisions," West declared. "We want to send a lesson to ourselves, to our loved ones, our families, our communities, our nation and the world, that out of deep love for working and poor people that we are willing to put whatever it takes (on the line)—even if we get arrested today—and say we will not allow this day of Martin Luther King Jr's memorial to go by without somebody going to jail. Because Martin King would be here right with us, willing to throw down out of deep love."

Then, the author of "Race Matters," "Democracy Matters" and other groundbreaking books written in the King tradition sat down on the steps of the court with at least 18 protesters.

"We are here to bear witness, in solidarity with the Occupy movement all around the world because we love poor people, we love working people, and we want Martin Luther King Jr. to smile from the grave that we haven't forgotten," said West.

Moments later, West was cuffed by the police and led into the court building as a crowd chanted: "We're with you, Dr. West!" and "We won't forget!"

"Science Daily" - Omega-3 Fatty Acids Shown to Prevent or Slow Progression of Osteoarthritis

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111017111600.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2011) — New research has shown for the first time that omega-3 in fish oil could "substantially and significantly" reduce the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis.

According to the University of Bristol study, funded by Arthritis Research UK and published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, omega-3-rich diets fed to guinea pigs, which naturally develop osteoarthritis, reduced disease by 50 per cent compared to a standard diet.

The research is a major step forward in showing that omega-3 fatty acids, either sourced from fish oil or flax oil, may help to slow down the progression of osteoarthritis, or even prevent it occurring, confirming anecdotal reports and "old wives' tales" about the benefits of fish oil for joint health.

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“Steven Jonas” - The Coming Second Civil War in the United States, Will We be Enslaved by Corporate Governance?

October 17, 2011

By Steven Jonas

History never repeats itself exactly. But it makes some pretty decent copies. As I write this we are winding down to the end of the so-called "debt-limit crisis," or the possible end, or the continuation of it, or what have you. Of course what is going on is not really about the debt-limit. It is about the future of the federal government in the United States and its appropriate role. As I wrote in my BuzzFlash@Truthout Commentary on Grover Norquist's wet dream (http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12601 [1]), his 25-year campaign is focused only at the secondary level on taxation. It is primarily about his stated goal of "shrinking the federal government to the size of a bathtub and then drowning it in the bathtub," or as he used to more simply state it: "starve the beast."

The "beast" for Norquist is of course not the whole of federal functions. His "beast to be starved" does not include the support of the military-industrial complex, the so-called "drug war" and its off-spring the prison-industrial complex, financial support of the investment and banking industries when needed, and the subsidies for the extractive industries and corporate farming. It is, rather, national domestic spending on support of the elderly, the health care delivery system, education, infra-structure, and at the top of his enemies list, environmental and financial regulation.

This is what the current struggle is about. The GOP and its wholly-owned and most convenient subsidiary/front organization the "Tea Party," serving solely the interest of their single master, the corporate power (a tiny oligarchy, leading their mass support by a clever combination of racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and political religiosity), are simply using the current so-called "debt crisis" as a means to force down the throat of the nation its view of what the Federal government should and should not be doing which it would be extremely unlikely to achieve through the legislative process. Of course no one over there ever reads the statement of purpose of the US Constitution, the Preamble. But that's another story (see my BF Commentary on it at http://blog.buzzflash.com/jonas/185 [2]).

Of course President Obama, if he were an old-line Democratic President like FDR, or Harry Truman, or JFK, or LBJ before he was swallowed up his perceived need to polish his "anti-Communist" credentials and expand the War on Vietnam, or even if he were Dwight David Eisenhower, who firmly believed that the New Deal was settled policy and need only to be buffed around the edges, would have made the issue very plain, would have clearly laid it before the nation, would have said something like:

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“Eugene Elander” - That New Bank Debit Card Fee Is Probably Worse than You Think!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/That-New-Bank-Debit-Card-F-by-Eugene-Elander-111017-336.html

October 17, 2011

By Eugene Elander

That new bank debit card fee is  probably worse than you think, judging from a letter I finally received by regular mail, in a torn undersize envelope, from Wells Fargo Bank's "ATM Executive Office", after weeks of emailing top Wells Fargo executives, including CEO John G. Stumpf, to protest the bank's attempt to get around the will of Congress by imposing an atrocious new fee to replace some which were banned.

Wells Fargo seems to hide away that new fee in tiny type on the last page of our bank statements -- the page nobody bothers to read, as Wells Fargo is probably well aware.    And, from the copies of account statements sent with the Wells Fargo letter, it is clear that their new so-called Monthly Debit Card Activity Fee is far worse than it seemed originally -- as this fee applies not only to making one-time purchases on a WF debit card, but also "for purchases or payments(including recurring payments)".  It will thus be very hard to avoid.

Any payments for which one previously subscribed by using a debit card number (ex.: routine bills for utilities, monthly credit card payments, and similar common items) will automatically incur this new, unwarranted, excessive, and abusive ultra vires Monthly Debit Card Activity Fee!   That is why it is called an ACTIVITY FEE rather than merely a PURCHASE FEE!   And it takes a $25,000 banking relationship With Wells Fargo to avoid the fee, so while heavy hitters are likely to escape, we average customers will be saddled with this extra charge.

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"Thomas Ferguson" - Congressional Leadership Positions for Sale to the Highest Bidder

By Thomas Ferguson, The Washington Spectator

Posted on October 17, 2011, Printed on October 18, 2011
http://www.washingtonspectator.org/articles/20111015postedprices.cfm

Under the new rules for the 2008 election cycle, the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] asked rank-and-file members to contribute $125,000 in dues and to raise an additional $75,000 for the party. Subcommittee chairpersons must contribute $150,000 in dues and raise an additional $100,000. Members who sit on the most powerful committees … must contribute $200,000 and raise an additional $250,000. Subcommittee chairs on power committees and committee chairs of non-power committees must contribute $250,000 and raise $250,000. The five chairs of the power committees must contribute $500,000 and raise an additional $1 million. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Majority Whip James Clyburn, and Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel must contribute $800,000 and raise $2.5 million. The four Democrats who serve as part of the extended leadership must contribute $450,000 and raise $500,000, and the nine Chief Deputy Whips must contribute $300,000 and raise $500,000. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must contribute a staggering $800,000 and raise an additional $25 million. 

—Marian Currinder, Money in the House (2008)

THE YEAR IS 1909. The U.S. income distribution is about as lopsided as it is today. J. P. Morgan is fine-tuning a tariff bill by telegraph from his yacht. Morgan and his fellow robber barons have for years reliably tied Congress up in knots whenever anyone proposes regulating trusts, railroad rates, financial speculation, or labor disputes. A notoriously corrupt ring of U.S. senators, the so-called "Millionaires Club," is on hand to bury in committee any measures that the corporate titans frown upon.

Fast-forward to 2011. Being a millionaire in Congress is nothing special — just about half of all members are one. The legislative process works less operatically, but the result is pretty much the same: legislative gridlock punctuated by occasional blatant special-interest legislation. Banks are rescued; the unemployed are left to their own devices. The housing market is left in free fall, with the bailed-out banks mostly still left to call the tune on foreclosures.

As national income stagnates, financiers submerge financial reforms and derivatives regulation under waves of campaign contributions. Meanwhile, a vast array of interested firms and investors dispatch armies of lobbyists to stymie Congressional action on climate change, block the government from bargaining down prices of drugs paid for by federal health programs, and keep tax increases forever off the national agenda.

We watch the news to see if Congressional stalemates over deficits will lead to a government default that would throw world financial markets into turmoil or force draconian, across-the-board budget cuts at Thanksgiving time. But while we hold our breath, popular discussions about Congress have taken a curious turn. Pundits talk nostalgically about the good old days, when representatives from the two parties regularly played golf together and compromised their differences in the name of the larger national interest. Today such outcomes are said to be impossible. But why, exactly?

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