Ethan A. Huff - Congress votes down Sen. Durbin's anti-supplement amendment, as well as Sen. Paul's freedom of health speech amendment

A sneaky, eleventh-hour attempt by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to essentially shut down the supplement industry alongside an amendment pertaining to prescription drug user fees has failed. In a vote of 77-20, the U.S. Senate voted to table Amendment No. 2127, which would have created "duplicative, unnecessary, and unexpected new regulations" for the supplement industry that could have resulted in many common supplements being pulled from store shelves.

To the surprise of the entire natural health community, the unveiling of Amdt. No 2127 came late Tuesday afternoon, according to the Natural Products Insider (NPI), just one day before the bill to which it was attached, S. 3187, the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, was set for a vote. But because the natural health community immediately sprung into action to oppose Amdt. No 2127, it was successfully defeated.

"(Amdt. No 2127 is) based on the misguided presumption that the current regulatory framework for dietary supplements is flawed and that the FDA lacks authority to regulate these products," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) on the Senate Floor, in opposition to the amendment. He added that the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) already provisions the FDA with the tools it needs to properly regulate supplements, and that Amdt. No 2127 only "serves to punish all responsible companies with its overreaching mandates."

Read More:

http://www.naturalnews.com/035976_Dick_Durbin_supplements_Senate.html

Amnesty Report Slams UN as Failure in the Wake of Global Uprisings

In its 50th global human rights report, rights group Amnesty International slammed the UN Security Council as a failure and "unfit for its purpose" in the wake of global uprisings.

In the backdrop of courageous protesters worldwide, the group says that the UN Security Council is "tired, out of step and increasingly unfit for purpose."  Salil Shetty, Amnesty International Secretary General, said, “Failed leadership has gone global in the last year, with politicians responding to protests with brutality or indifference."

“In the last year it has all too often become clear that opportunistic alliances and financial interests have trumped human rights as global powers jockey for influence in the Middle East and North Africa,” added Shetty. “The language of human rights is adopted when it serves political or corporate agendas, and shelved when inconvenient or standing in the way of profit.”

Amnesty cites the UN Security Council's lack of action on crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka and Syria.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/24-4

Sara Robinson - Capitalism Has Failed: 5 Bold Ways to Build a New World

As our political system sputters, a wave of innovative thinking and bold experimentation is quietly sweeping away outmoded economic models. In New Economic Visions, a special five-part AlterNet series edited by economics editor Lynn Parramore in partnership with political economist Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, creative thinkers come together to explore the exciting ideas and projects that are shaping the philosophical and political vision of the movement that could take our economy back.

The problem, in a nutshell, is this: The old economic model has utterly failed us. It has destroyed our communities, our democracy, our economic security, and the planet we live on. The old industrial-age systems -- state communism, fascism, free-market capitalism -- have all let us down hard, and growing numbers of us understand that going back there isn't an option.

But we also know that transitioning to some kind of a new economy -- and, probably, a new governing model to match -- will be a civilization-wrenching process. We're having to reverse deep and ancient assumptions about how we allocate goods, labor, money, and power on a rapidly shrinking, endangered, complex, and ever more populated planet. We are bolding taking the global economy -- and all 7 billion souls who depend on it -- where no economy has ever gone before.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155456/capitalism_has_failed%3A_5_bold_ways_to_build_a_new_world

Arun Gupta - Has the FBI Launched a War of Entrapment Against the Occupy Movement?

With the high-profile arrest of activists on terrorism charges in Cleveland on May Day and in Chicago during the NATO summit there, evidence is mounting that the FBI is unleashing the same methods of entrapment against the Occupy Wall Street movement that it has used against left movements and Muslim-Americans for the last decade.

In Cleveland the FBI announced on May 1 that “five self-proclaimed anarchists conspired to develop multiple terror plots designed to negatively impact the greater Cleveland metropolitan area.” The FBI claimed the five were nabbed as they attempted to blow up a bridge the night before using “inoperable” explosives supplied to them by an undercover FBI employee.

Then on May 19, the day before thousands marched peacefully in Chicago to protest NATO-led wars, the Illinois State Attorney hit three men with charges of terrorism for allegedly plotting to use “destructive devices” against targets ranging from Chicago police stations to the home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Defense attorneys for the Chicago activists claim their clients, like the Cleveland activists, were provided with supplies for making Molotov cocktails by undercover agents in an operation that included the participation of the FBI and Secret Service. This was followed up on May 20 by the arrest of two other men on terrorism charges in Chicago for statements they made, which critics say amount to thought crimes. The Chicago cases are also reportedly the first time the state of Illinois is charging individuals under its post-September 11 terrorism law.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155581/has_the_fbi_launched_a_war_of_entrapment_against_the_occupy_movement

Mike Whitney - CRASH ALERT: The Stock Market is Falling like a Stone

As you might have noticed, the stock market is falling like a stone. As of 9 AM PST, the Dow Jones has dropped 172 points while all the other indices are down sharply. German 2-year debt (bund) has dipped below 0% this morning at auction, signalling an acceleration in the bank run taking place in southern Europe. Depositors in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, etc would rather take a loss on their investment, then risk not their money back at all. The European Central Bank (ECB) does not guarantee deposits, so people are withdrawing their money en masse and getting out of Dodge pronto. What we're seeing is a real-time panic.

The ostensible trigger for the panic is known, but you won't read about it in the financial media where the news is dumbed down to the point of incoherence. What's really going on is that the German central bank (The Bundesbank) has indicated that it's ready to pull the plug on Greece which means that future bailouts will probably not be forthcoming. That's bad. It means that Greece will run out of money some time in June; their banking system will implode, and the "birthplace of democracy" will be reduced to 3rd world status overnight. Here's a blurb from the Bundesbank's communique:

"Current developments in Greece are extremely worrying. Greece is threatening not to implement the reform and consolidation measures that were agreed in return for the large-scale aid programmes.

Read More:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31027

Marco Torres - Shrimp At Grocery Retailers Contains Antibiotics and Carcinogens Affecting DNA

Ron Kendall, director of The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) at Texas Tech, said researchers tested only the muscle tissues consumed by people. When concluded, they found evidence of three antibiotics in 30 samples tested. 

Though the sample sizes were small, he said finding antibiotic residues at all is cause for concern. Todd Anderson, a professor of environmental toxicology, and instrument manager QingSong Cai conducted the shrimp analyses. 

"We estimate that at least 80% of all shrimp imported to grocery retailers comes from farmed sources with similar practices," said Graham Beaton, a head toxicologist and food inspector. 

"We know that 80% of all farmed shrimp comes from Asia, mostly from Thailand and China who are well known for producing 'dirty shrimp'." 

Shrimp farming has changed from traditional, small-scale businesses in Southeast Asia into a global industry whose primary motive is profit. Technological advances have led to growing shrimp at ever higher densities, and broodstock is shipped worldwide. 

Sodium Tripolyphosphate is in more than 90% of packaged shrimp and seafood, something of great concern, especially since it's also used in detergents, antifreeze and flame retardants. 

This controversial additive can make expired products appear firmer and glossier, and fool consumers into buying old or spoiled fish, shrimp and other seafood foods that could ultimately make people sick. Worse yet, exposure to the chemical itself could also be very harmful. 

Read More:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/245764-Shrimp-At-Grocery-Retailers-Contains-Antibiotics-and-Carcinogens-Affecting-DNA#.T71QTfVrQp8.email

John Atcheson - 'Faster Than We Thought': An Epitaph for Planet Earth

Sometime later this Century, a writer will sit down and attempt to document how his or her grandparents’ generation could have all but ignored the greatest disaster humanity has ever faced.

It won’t be a pleasant world she lives in. Cities and countries will be locked in an expensive battle with rapidly rising seas; but after spending trillions of dollars, most of the world’s ports will have been abandoned anyway.

Up to seventy percent of the planet’s species will be wiped out.  Gone. Vanished. Kaput. Songbirds will no longer serenade us.  Butterflies will no longer dazzle us.  The boreal forests – the largest belt of green in the world – will be gone. 

Brutal heat waves will be the norm. Off-the-chart hurricanes and storms will be the rule.  Deserts will have expanded.  Haboobs, giant black blizzards of dust will sweep across vast portions of the US’s high plains and the southwest. The Amazon rainforest will be a shrunken, wizened remnant of a once vast source of life. 

The once bountiful seas will be acidic crypts in which jellyfish and other primitive forms spread in vast sheets across the surface, covering the rotting hulks of the fish we used to eat. 

Agricultural productivity will collapse, famine will be widespread. 

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/23-5

Data, Drugs, and Deception: a True Story

Last week The Lancet published a meta-analysis of 27 statin trials, an attempt to determine whether patients with no history of heart problems benefit from the drugs—true story. The topic is controversial, and no less than six conflicting meta-analyses have been performed—also a true story. But last week’s study claims to show, once and for all, that for these very low risk patients, statins save lives—true story.

Actual true story: the conclusions of this study are neither novel nor valid.

The Lancet meta-analysis, authored by the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists group, examines individual patient data from 27 statin studies. Their findings disagree with an analysis published in 2010 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, and with analyses from two equally respected publications, the Therapeutics Letter and the Cochrane Collaboration.* Despite this history of dueling data the authors of last week’s meta-analysis, in a remarkable break from scientific decorum, conclude their report with a directive for the writers of statin guidelines: the drugs should be broadly recommended based on the new analysis.

As an editorialist points out, if implemented, the CTT group recommendations in the United States would lead to 64 million people, more than half of the population over the age of 35, being started on statin therapy—true story.

Read More:

http://smartem.org/content/data-drugs-and-deception-true-story

Nosolitol - Pharmacy Drug Commercial Parody Tin Foil Hat Times (Video)

Are you tired sometimes......? Make sure you listen to the disclaimer at the end

When we take the world too serious we forget that none of us are getting out of here alive. Here is a bit of humor from our first two years. The TFHT productions crew is always busy creating something new. From music to commercials to skits and interviews, this section highlights the lighter side of the Conspiracy Researcher.

Yemen on Brink of Hunger Catastrophe Aid Agencies Warn

Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis, seven aid agencies said on (23 May 2012) with 10 million people – 44 percent of the population – without enough food to eat. The aid agencies warned that malnutrition rates recorded by the UN in some parts of the country were alarming, with one in three children severely malnourished.

Ministers from the UK, Saudi Arabia and other countries are set to meet at the Friends of Yemen conference in Riyadh today. The agencies - CARE, International Medical Corps, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Mercy Corps, Oxfam and Save the Children – called on those attending the meeting to scale up efforts to tackle the crisis. The UN humanitarian appeal for the country is just 43 percent funded – a $262 million shortfall.  

Penny Lawrence, Oxfam’s International Director, who is visiting Yemen, said:

“Yemeni families are at the brink and have exhausted their ways of coping with this crisis. A quarter of the population has fallen into debt trying to feed their families. Mothers are taking their children out of school to beg on the streets to get money to survive. Donors are focused on politics and security, but failure to respond adequately to the humanitarian needs now will put more lives at risk, further entrench poverty and could undermine political transition in the country.”

Read More:

http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2012-05-23/yemen-brink-hunger-catastrophe