EU Reporter - Roundup and birth defects researcher presents findings to German government

EU Reporter, 3 October 2011
http://www.eureporter.co/2011/10/roundup-and-birth-de/

On 28 September 2011, the scientist at the centre of the global row over glyphosate/Roundup herbicide and birth defects met with representatives of the German government to present his scientific findings that Roundup herbicide and the chemical on which it is based, glyphosate, cause birth defects in laboratory animals.[1]

Prof Andres Carrasco, MD, is head of the Molecular Embryology Laboratory at University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and chief scientist at the National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET), Argentina. Carrasco’s findings gave scientific credibility to reports of people in Argentina who claimed escalating rates of birth defects and cancers after the introduction of genetically modified soy, which is engineered to tolerate being sprayed with huge amounts of glyphosate.

Accompanying Dr Carrasco at the meeting were representatives of the sustainability nonprofit organisation Earth Open Source. The delegation met with representatives from BMELV, BVL, UBA, and BfR. The current approval of glyphosate dates from 2002.

The current approval (in common with all approvals of pesticide and genetically modified crops) is based on studies performed by the very same pesticide companies that stand to profit from an approval of the substance.

Originally glyphosate was due to be reviewed in 2012 but the Commission delayed the review until 2015. Germany has a special responsibility in the Roundup controversy because it is the rapporteur member state for glyphosate, responsible for liaising between the pesticide industry, the EU Commission and the EU member states on the EU approval of glyphosate. Germany will remain as the rapporteur member state for the 2015 review of the substance.

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Bruce Levine - How Can We Rouse Police and Other Protectors of the Corporatocracy -- "Guards" of the Status Quo -- to Join the OWS Rebellion ?

By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet

Posted on October 20, 2011, Printed on October 21, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152802/how_can_we_rouse_police_and_other_protectors_of_the_corporatocracy_--_%22guards%22_of_the_status_quo_--_to_join_the_ows_rebellion_

“In a highly developed society, the Establishment cannot survive without the obedience and loyalty of millions of people who are given small rewards to keep the system going: the soldiers and police, teachers and ministers, administrators and social workers, technicians and production workers, doctors, lawyers. . . . They become the guards of the system, buffers between the upper and lower classes. If they stop obeying, the system falls.”

—Howard Zinn, from “The Coming Revolt of the Guards,” A People’s History of the United States, 

For those of us who have demonstrated and marched in the Occupy movement, it is obvious that the police and the corporate press serve as guards—buffers between the vast majority of the American people and the ruling “corporatocracy” (the partnership of giant corporations, the wealthy elite, and their collaborating politicians). In addition to the police and the corporate press, there are millions of other guards employed by the corporatocracy to keep people obedient and maintain the status quo.  

Even a partial revolt of the guards could increase the number of protesters on the streets from the thousands to the millions. When did Zinn predict the revolt would occur, and how can this revolt be accelerated?  

The Other Guards

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Robert Scheer - Let Them Eat Keller

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/let_them_eat_keller_20111020/

Posted on Oct 20, 2011

By Robert Scheer

Funny, he doesn’t look like Marie Antoinette. But when former New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller asks his readers if they are “bored by the soggy sleep-ins and warmed-over anarchism of Occupy Wall Street,” it displays the arrogance of disoriented royal privilege. 

Perhaps his contempt for anti-corporate protesters was honed by the example of his father, once the chairman of Chevron. In any case, it is revealing, given the cheerleading support that the Times gave to the radical deregulation of Wall Street that occurred when Keller was the managing editor of the newspaper.

As the Times reported on its news pages in 1998, heralding the merger that created Citigroup as the world’s largest financial conglomerate: “In a single day, with a bold merger, pending legislation in Congress to sweep away Depression-era restrictions on the financial services industry has been given a sudden, and unexpected, new chance of passage.”

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Jim Hightower - Wall Street is Dazed and Confused

by: Jim Hightower, Truthout | Op-Ed

http://www.truth-out.org/wall-street-dazed-and-confused/1319028757

Astonishingly, some Wall Streeters continue to be clueless about what the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting. Yoo-hoo, Streeters: Note that the movement's name has the term "Wall Street" in it.

While there is a plethora of particular issues being raised by the protesters -- from the corrupting power of corporate money in our elections to the demise of middle-class wages -- the unifying theme is that each one adds to the rising tide of economic inequality that's enriching the most privileged few by knocking down America's workaday majority. And, Mr. and Ms. Streeter, guess who is the most powerful perpetrators of this greed-fueled disparity: Yes, you.

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A Message About Today's Gary Null Show

Dearest listeners:

Unfortunately, if you were listening to WBAI this afternoon, you heard a replay of a prior episode instead of my brand new show for today. If, however, you were tuned in to my own radio stream, The Progressive Radio Network, you were able to hear the correct show. We're sorry for the mix up. For your convenience, you can hear and download the entire episode in the PRN Archives, as well as all of my past episodes, uninterrupted and un-cut. Please enjoy the entire show, embedded below:

THE GARY NULL SHOW - 10/21/11

In lieu of a guest, Gary shares his commentary on student loans, health & wellness, and the state of the economy.

Download this episode (right click and save)

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Science Daily - National Health Care Scorecard: United States Scores 64 out of 100

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111018121836.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2011) — The U.S. health care system scored 64 out of 100 on key measures of performance, according to the third national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, released October 18. The scorecard finds that -- despite pockets of improvement -- the U.S as a whole failed to improve when compared to best performers in this country, and among other nations. The report also finds significant erosion in access to care and affordability of care, as health care costs rose far faster than family incomes.

At the same time, the scorecard highlights some bright spots for the U.S., with notable gains in quality of care in areas that have been the focus of public reporting or collaborative improvement initiatives. For example, 50 percent of adults with high blood pressure had it under control in 2007-2008, compared with only 31 percent in 1999-2000. In addition, hospital quality indicators for treatment of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia, and prevention of surgical complications, have improved substantially across the country since hospitals began publicly reporting their quality data through a federal website.

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Leslie Carol Botha - Governor Brown Signs Parent’s Worst Nightmare into Law Gives Custody of 12 Year Old's to the State

By Leslie Carol Botha, Vice President Public Relations

October 20, 2011

The fatality of a 14 year old California girl was entered into the VAERS database on August 23, 2011 – 134 days after her death in April. The latest Gardasil victim died of cardiac arrest 14 days after vaccination.  According to VAERS report # 430780 , the adolescent was vaccinated on March 28, had no other life-threatening illnesses, and received no other vaccinations.

The VAERS write up includes this statement: “Found dead in bed in a.m. by family. Pathologist stated cause of death as consistent with cardiac insufficiency, due to cardiac arrhythmia, due to probable early cardiomyopathy. Child Death Review Team felt this death was consistent with a diagnosis of sudden cardiac death.”

The untimely and sad passing of this innocent previously healthy young girl now marks the 4th death post-HPV vaccination in the state of California. Janny Stokvis, VAERS Analyst for SANE Vax Inc. who found the latest VAERS fatality also reports that there have been 1548 adverse injuries* from Gardasil and Cervarix reported in the state.

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Tom Engelhardt - Is the National Security Complex Too Big to Fail?

By Tom Engelhardt

Posted on October 20, 2011, Printed on October 20, 2011
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175456/

Think of Iraq as the AIG of wars -- the only difference being that the bailout there didn’t involve just three payouts.  More than eight years after the Bush administration invaded that country, the bailout is, unbelievably enough, still going.  Even as the U.S. military withdraws, the State Department is planning to spend billions more in taxpayer dollars to field an army of hired-gun contractors to replace it.  Afghanistan?  It could have been the Lehman Brothers of conflicts, but when Barack Obama entered the Oval Office he chose the Citigroup model instead, and surged troops in twice in 2009.  In other words, he double-TARPed that war, and ever since, the bailout money has been flooding in.

Until now -- as the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations make clear -- “too big to fail” has meant only one set of institutions: the plundering financial outfits that played such a role in driving the U.S. economy off a cliff in 2008, looked like they might themselves collapse in a heap of bad deals and indebtedness, and were bailed out by Washington.  Isn’t it finally time to expand the too-big-to-fail category to include the Pentagon, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and more generally the National Security Complex?

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Robert Reich - The Austerity Death-Trap

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Austerity-Death-Trap-by-Robert-Reich-111019-769.html

October 19, 2011

By Robert Reich

Ron Paul's newly-unveiled economic plan -- promising to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget in year one (presumably that means 2013) -- is only slightly more ambitious than what we're hearing from other Republican candidates. They're all calling for major spending cuts starting as soon as possible. 

What are they smoking?

Can we just put ideology aside for a moment and be clear about the facts? Consumer spending (70 percent of the economy) is flat or dropping because consumers are losing their jobs and wages, and don't have the dough. And businesses aren't hiring because they don't have enough customers.

The only way out of this vicious cycle is for the government -- the spender of last resort -- to boost the economy. The regressives are all calling for the opposite.

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Don Lieber - Weather Extremes as the 'New Normal', and the Most Destructive Project on Earth.

October 19, 2011

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Weather-Extremes-as-the-N-by-Don-Lieber-111017-253.html

By Don Lieber

New York, October 15, 2011.   R ecall the events of the past summer and Hurricane Irene:  Remember how it became the 24/7 total focus of everything?

The entire east coast of the United States was taken in fear by the approaching mega-storm. The news reminded us, relentlessly, of the unmatched power of Mother Nature.

What strikes me now, however, is the complete apathy we display towards the bigger picture regarding our weather. Significant changes in the chemistry of our climate, and key ecosystems, have been established: The NY Times reported in July that some 30% of the global coral reef network is now dead.   Reports proliferate: the oceans are increasingly acidic; forests are drying up; the arctic is melting.    Mother Nature is telling us something.

Yet we are not listening.

While the newscasters repeated, with adolescent incessancy, the obvious message that "HURRICANES ARE DANGEROUS",   not a whisper was uttered about the bigger picture -- the real news:   Climate change has arrived. New and extreme conditions are "normal' and we"are just watching passively.

Noted environmental writer Julia Whitty has documented the dramatic weather patterns well in Mother Jones ("The New Normal: Billion Dollar Disasters" -- click here). Citing data from the National Climatic Center (NCDC), Whitty states that "the U.S. has racked up more mega-expensive natural disasters in 2011 than ever before."

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