"Ralph Nader" - Obama Must Face Meaningful Democratic Primaries

America's two-party dictatorship – a model unknown in any other western country – keeps reinventing the ways it closes doors not just on third party candidates but on any challenges to their incumbent presidents within the party's primaries. Now, it is the turn of the Democrats to make a mockery out of the first amendment rights of others to speak, assemble and petition their government by running inside the upcoming presidential primary season that runs from January to June 2012. After President Obama took his liberal/progressive base for so many one-sided corporatist rides in his administration, he and his allies are very determined to give him a free ride by having him campaign around the country on Air Force One as an unchallenged, one-man primary.

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"Yoko Kubota" - Japan Sizes Up Task of Fukushima Waste Disposal

TOKYO - Japan faces the prospect of removing and disposing 29 million cubic metres of soil contaminated by the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years from an area nearly the size of Tokyo, the environment ministry said in the first official estimate of the scope and size of the cleanup. Six months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered reactor meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan's northeast coast, the size of the task of cleaning up is only now becoming clear. Contaminated zones where radiation levels need to be brought down could top 2,400 square km (930 square miles), sprawling over Fukushima and four nearby prefectures, the ministry said in a report released on Tuesday.

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"William Bowles": The Empire's Giant Ponzi Scheme: In the Belly of the 'Economic Beast'

In case you hadn't noticed, especially if you get your news from the MSM, there is the mother of all capitalist crises unfolding around us. A crisis that appears to be far deeper even than the Crash of '29 and given the global nature of corporate capitalism, nobody (except the rich) can escape its awful destructive power, short of revolution of course. So deep in fact, that the imperial elites are incapable of resolving it and appear to be frozen to the spot like a deer caught in the headlights, attempting to apply 'solutions' that only compound the contradictions. It points once and again to the chaotic nature of capitalism that hides its ignorance behind glib phrases that mean nothing.

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"ScienceDaily" Organic Tomato Juice Contains More Beneficial Phenolic Components Than Juice from Conventionally Grown Crops

(Sep. 27, 2011) — Organic tomato juice contains more phenolic components than juice from conventionally grown crops, according to a new study published in the journal Food Chemistry.

The study was directed by Rosa M. Lamuela, a lecturer from the Department of Nutrition and Bromatology of the University of Barcelona (UB) and researcher for the Nutrition and Food Safety Research Institute (INSA) and the Spanish Biomedical Research Centre-Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn). Also participating in the study are Anna Vallverdú-Queralt and Alexander Medina-Remón, from INSA and CIBERobn, and Isidre Casals-Ribes and Olga Jáuregui, from the UB's Scientific and Technological Centre (CCiTUB).

Polyphenols: health benefits

The research, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, brings new data to the debate over organic and conventional crops, from a study of polyphenols in tomato juice -- particularly relevant as the tomato is the most widely consumed fresh and processed vegetable in Spain. According to the lecturer Rosa M. Lamuela, head of the UB's Natural Antioxidants Group, "This is an innovative scientific study to determine the phenolic compounds found in organic and conventional tomato juice and their possible health benefits. Strangely, although tomatoes are consumed in large quantities across the world, until now only certain components with nutritional value had been studied, such as carotenes (lycopene), whereas little work had been done on polyphenols."

Polyphenols are a family of natural compounds with important nutritional properties that can protect the body against cardiovascular and degenerative diseases and some forms of cancer. These substances neutralize free radicals and are capable of regulating enzyme activity, producing numerous health benefits. The team behind the study analysed the total content of flavonols and hydroxycinnamic acids in commercial tomato juices and revealed significant differences -- undescribed until now -- between the levels of bioactive components in organic tomatoes and the levels found in conventionally grown crops.

Organic versus traditional agriculture

The researcher Anna Vallverdú-Queralt, first author of the study, explains that "the results could be explained by the defence mechanisms of plants according to the type of manure used in organic and conventional production. In any form of cultivation, the most important factor for the growth of the plant is the availability of nitrogen. In conventional agriculture, the nitrogen can be added in soluble form, as a fertilizer, whereas in organic production the plant receives no artificial nutrients and therefore responds by activating defence mechanisms that increase the levels of polyphenols. As a result, conventionally grown plants can lose resistance to disease and present lower levels of nutrients, minerals and secondary metabolites."

Scientific literature has for years reflected widespread disagreement over the relative benefits of organic and conventional foodstuffs, and the results of studies published in scientific journals are often contradictory. "It should be noted that the study published in Food Chemistry only analyses the phenolic components present in tomato juice," points out Rosa Lamuela, "and is part of a much wider project to analyse the factors that may increase the content of bioactive components in tomatoes and tomato products."

The UB's Natural Antioxidants Group, headed by the lecturer Rosa M. Lamuela, is part of the Generalitat's Food Technology Reference Network (XaRTA) and INSA. The group has participated extensively in international projects for the study of polyphenols in foods, their bioavailability and the effects of these substances on human health. The researchers are currently working on a range of clinical and epidemiological studies, focusing on resveratrol, grapes, wine and archaeological remains, as well as citrus fruits, cocoa, chocolate, beer and olive oil, and other common components of the human diet.

Anna Vallverdú-Queralt, Alexander Medina-Remón, Isidre Casals-Ribes, Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventos. Is there any difference between the phenolic content of organic and conventional tomato juices? Food Chemistry, 2012; 130 (1): 222

India files biopiracy lawsuit against Monsanto, says biotech giant is stealing nature for corporate gain

Representing one of the most agriculturally bio-diverse nations in the world, India has become a primary target for biotechnology companies like Monsanto and Cargill to spread their genetically-modified (GM) crops into new markets. However, a recentFrance 24 report explains that the Indian government has decided to take an offensive approach against this attempted agricultural takeover by suing Monsanto for "biopiracy," accusing the company of stealing India's indigenous plants in order to re-engineer them into patented varieties. Brinjal, also known in Western nations as eggplant, is a native Indian crop for which there are roughly 2,500 different unique varieties. Millions of Indian farmers grow brinjal, which is used in a variety of Indian food dishes, and the country grows more than a quarter of the world's overall supply of the vegetable. And in an attempt to capitalize on this popular crop, Monsanto has repeatedly tried to commercially market its own GM variety of brinjal called Bt brinjal. But massive public outcry against planned commercial approval of Monsanto's "frankencrop" variety in 2010 led to the government banning it for an indefinite period of time.

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"Peter Van Buren" - Freedom Isn’t Free at the State Department

Posted on September 27, 2011, Printed on September 27, 2011
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175446/

The Only Employee at State Who May Be Fired Because of WikiLeaks
By Peter Van Buren

On the same day that more than 250,000 unredacted State Department cables hemorrhaged out onto the Internet, I was interrogated for the first time in my 23-year State Department career by State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) and told I was under investigation for allegedly disclosing classified information. The evidence of my crime? A posting on my blog from the previous month that included a link to a WikiLeaks document already available elsewhere on the Web.

As we sat in a small, gray, windowless room, resplendent with a two-way mirror, multiple ceiling-mounted cameras, and iron rungs on the table to which handcuffs could be attached, the two DS agents stated that the inclusion of that link amounted to disclosing classified material. In other words, a link to a document posted by who-knows-who on a public website available at this moment to anyone in the world was the legal equivalent of me stealing a Top Secret report, hiding it under my coat, and passing it to a Chinese spy in a dark alley.

The agents demanded to know who might be helping me with my blog (“Name names!”), if I had donated any money from my upcoming book on my wacky year-long State Department assignment to a forward military base in Iraq, and if so to which charities, the details of my contract with my publisher, how much money (if any) I had been paid, and -- by the way -- whether I had otherwise “transferred” classified information.

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"You Tube Video" - Donald Rumsfield Press Conference regarding the Pentagon missing 2.3 Trillion Dollars

Here are four videos on Rumsfeld's Sept. 10, 2011 public statements regarding the Pentagon 'missing' $2.3 Trillion. The first three videos, as well as the recent Aug. 15, 2011, the Pentagon claim it now can't account for $10 Trillion. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJmS_92Oo9I&feature=related 

Rumsfeld Pentagon press conference of Sept. 10, 2011 re missing $2.3 Trillion  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRqeJcuK-A 

Rumsfeld Congressional testimony on Sept. 10, 2011 re missing Trillions – Part 1 of 2 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aupqwx6vaCs&feature=related

Part 2 of 2  

Pentagon now admits it can't account for $10 Trillion

(as of Aug. 15, 2011) 

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/budget-buster-pentagon-unable-account-trillions-glain-says-160838112.html   



"Progressive Radio Network Host Danny Schechter, Fridays @ 1pm(EDT)" - OCCUPYING WALL STREET ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON

A Report from A Front That May Soon Be Shut Down

By Danny Schechter
Author of the Crime Of Our Time

Before you read on, watch this: a video from the base camp of the #OccupyWall Street protest that is now in its seventh day. It’s called “No One Can Predict the Moment of Revolution.”  (The video was produced by Martyna Starosta and her friend Iva)

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWInp75ua0" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWInp75ua0

These are the faces of a wannabe revolution, more than a protest but not yet quite a major Movement, The spirit is infectious perhaps because of the sincerity of the participants and their obvious commitment to their ideals.

Occupy Wall Street is more than a protest; it is as much an exercise in building a leaderless, bottom-up resistance community with a more democratic approach to challenging the system where everyone is encouraged to have a say.

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"Chris Hedges" - The Tomatoes of Wrath

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/26-6

Published on Monday, September 26, 2011 by TruthDig.com

by Chris Hedges

It is 6 a.m. in the parking lot outside the La Fiesta supermarket in Immokalee, Fla. Rodrigo Ortiz, a 26-year-old farmworker, waits forlornly in the half light for work in the tomato fields. White-painted school buses with logos such as “P. Cardenas Harvesting” are slowly filling with fieldworkers. Knots of men and a few women, speaking softly in Spanish and Creole, are clustered on the asphalt or seated at a few picnic tables waiting for crew leaders to herd them onto the buses, some of which will travel two hours to fields. Roosters are crowing as the first light of dawn rises over the cacophony. Men shovel ice into 10-gallon plastic containers from an ice maker next to the supermarket, which opens at 3:30 a.m. to sell tacos and other food to the workers. The containers—which they lug to pickup trucks—provide water for the pickers in the sweltering, humid fields where temperatures soar to 90 degrees and above.(Illustration by Mr. Fish)

Ortiz, a short man in a tattered baseball cap and soiled black pants that are too long and spill over the tops of his worn canvas sneakers, is not fortunate this day. By 7 a.m. the last buses leave without him. He heads back to the overcrowded trailer he shares with several other men. There are always workers left behind at these predawn pickup sites where hundreds congregate in the hopes of getting work. Nearly 90 percent of the workers are young, single immigrant men, and at least half lack proper documents or authorization to work in the United States.

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"Allison Kilkenny" - Abysmal Occupy Wall Street Coverage: Rubbernecking At The New York Times

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/26-5

Published on Monday, September 26, 2011 by The Nation

by Allison Kilkenny

Over the weekend, my inbox exploded with angry messages from people who had just read this New York Times article (though it reads more like an op-ed) about the Occupy Wall Street protest. Ginia Bellafante gives a devastating account of the event’s attendees, depicting them as scatterbrained, sometimes borderline psychotic transients.

Bellafante, who is not a reporter but a critic for the Times, offered a representation of the protesters that is as muddled as the amalgam of activists' motives she presents in the span of the article. She first claims a Joni Mitchell lookalike named Zuni Tikka is a “default ambassador” of the movement. In one of the following paragraphs, she then describes the protest as “leaderless.” Either the people at Zuccotti Park have official leadership or they don’t (they don’t, by the way). So either Tikka is an official spokesperson who warrants first-paragraph favorability, or Bellafante’s own biases persuaded her to put the kooky girl dancing around in her underwear in the spotlight.

The more serious aspect of the protest – the “scores of arrests” that occurred over the weekend including the arrests of more than 80 people, several of whom the police first penned and then maced– is offered as an aside in Bellafante’s article (she doesn’t mention the macing at all). By the way, none of the young women in the following video are in their underwear.

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