Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Ginger For Cancer, Brain-Gut Inflammation, Radiation, Staph, More | Health Freedom Alliance

Ginger For Cancer, Brain-Gut Inflammation, Radiation, Staph, More

Submitted by Lois Rain on September 13, 2011 – 9:18 pmNo Comment

The following offers LOADS of information regarding the medicinal qualities of ginger! It includes many more benefits than listed in the title, some cautions, and a simple recipe to start enjoying it today.

An amazing home remedy and a good friend in the kitchen; always have some ginger ready. After reading, you will definitely start thinking of ways to use ginger throughout the day.

~Health Freedoms


Ginger Treats Cancer, Brain & Gut Inflammation, Radiation, and Staph Infections

Not only is ginger a culinary marvel, its health benefits are stunning. It has been shown to be more effective against staph infections than antibiotics—and without the adverse effects.

Ginger’s culinary qualities are a delight, but its health benefits are simply stunning. It has been shown to be more effective against bacterial staph infections than antibiotics. It can kill cancer cells. Its anti-inflammatory effects are already famous. It can resolve brain inflammations, and ease or cure a variety of gut problems, such as ulcerative colitis and acid reflux. And ginger can even alleviate the effects of gamma radiation. What’s not to love about this incredible herb?

Standard in many kitchens and cuisines, ginger is the seasoning that gives life to a host of dishes. It’s been used medicinally for more than 2,000 years. Though best known for its gastrointestinal soothing effects, that’s just the beginning of its uses. The plant parts used for both culinary and medicinal purposes are the rhizomes, the root-like stems that grow underground. The primary plant used medicinally is Zingiber officinale.

Several compounds in ginger may be related to its health benefits, including shogaol, zingerone, and gingerols, which are similar to chili pepper’s capsaicin, noted for its pain relieving ability. However, as we’ve seen with separating aspirin from willow bark, trying to find the active ingredient in a herb and using it alone tends to both diminish its effects and remove the balancing components that can both increase positive effects and decrease or eliminate adverse effects.

Some information in this article is derived from studies that have isolated single ingredients, generally with the goal of developing drugs. Though this may be accomplished, a history of pharmaceuticals demonstrates that it is both hubristic to believe that nature will be improved and naive to think that isolating a single chemical can possibly be done without removing the balancing elements that mitigate against harmful effects. Nonetheless, such studies do help demonstrate that there is strong medicine in ginger.

Ginger’s Health Benefits

Let’s take a look at some of the areas that ginger has been shown to benefit health:

  • Cancer: Several studies have demonstrated ginger’s ability to defeat several types of cancer cells, including some of the most aggressive and difficult to treat: lung, ovarian, colon, breast, skin carcinoma, prostate, and pancreatic.(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
  • Diabetes Prevention: Studies have shown that diabetes may be both prevented and treated, along with the related abilities to lower blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood fats.(9,10)
  • Antiobiotic: Ginger’s antibiotic effects may be exceptional. At least one study(10) that compares the effects of ginger and antibiotics on Staphylococcus aureus and S. pyreus infections shows that ginger extract may be superior. The effects on drug-resistant infections are, as yet, unknown. Ginger has been shown to have an antibacterial effect on respiratory and periodontal infections.(11,12,13)
  • Antifungal: Fungal infections are among the most difficult to treat, and drug-resistant fungi have been developing. However, there’s no need to despair, as ginger has been found to have antifungal capability, including to drug-resistant forms.(14)
  • Ulcers: Intestinal ulcers can be prevented with ginger. There is a generally recognized acceptance now that the Helico pylori bacterium is associated with ulcers, and at least one study has shown that a derivative of ginger has been shown to inhibit H. pylori. One study has demonstrated that ginger can inhibit existing ulcers, too.(15,16)
  • Diabetes Complications: Complications of diabetes may be limited by ginger. Studies have shown that it may reduce urine protein levels, decrease water intake and urine output, and reverse proteinuria. It’s been shown to aldose reductase inhibitors, which reduce damage done by diabetes. Ginger can protect nerves in diabetes and lower blood fat levels. (17,18,19,20)
  • Inflammation: Inflammation is a serious problem with many chronic conditions, both in terms of causing them and causing pain, and ginger can be highly effective in managing it. Neurodegenerative diseases may be aided by ginger’s ability to inhibit nitrous oxide production and proinflammatory cytokines. Its antiinflammatory ability may be helpful in arthritis, cancer prevention, prostate disease, and general inflammatory processes.(21,22,23,24,25)
  • Gastric Distress: Ginger’s ability to ease gastric distress is superior, and it does more than simply ease pain. In a double-blind study, ginger capsules were taken orally in people suffering from dyspepsia with slow emptying of the stomach’s contents. It stimulated the emptying of the stomach without any negative effects. It has been found to have an antispasmodic agent, which helps explain some of its beneficial effects on the intestinal tract. As previously stated, it inhibits H. pylori, which helps prevent ulcers. It also protects gastic mucosa.(26,27,28)
  • Toxicity: Ginger helps prevent the toxic effects of a wide array of substances, including the pesticide lindane, a cancer drug, the chemical bromobenzene, and the excitotoxin monosodium glutamate (MSG). Lindane was shown to modulate oxidative stress in rats exposed to the pesticide lindane, a neurotoxin, simply by adding it to their diet. The cancer drug doxorubicin damages kidneys, but ginger has been shown to help alleviate the harm. Brombozene is highly toxic, used in chemical reactions, and can rapidly damage the liver and nervous system. Ginger has been shown to alleviate its liver damage. Ginger extract has been shown to protect against MSG nerve damage.29,30,31,32)
  • Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (Fructose Damage): Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NFLD) has a variety of causes, but it’s now on the increase because of the prevalence of fructose as a sweetener. Research on ginger’s function with regard to NFLD is in the very early stages. However, NFLD is known to be associated with dyslipidemia and excess triglycerides in the liver. Ginger may help this condition by lowering serum cholesterol. Research showing this is very new, published just this year, so it’s hardly definitive. However, ginger does appear to hold promise as a treatment for NFLD.(33)
  • Heartworms in Dogs: Dirofilaria immitis, heartworms, are a common canine infection. The standard medical treatments are risky, frequently causing neurological disorders and circulatory collapse. Resistance to them is also developing. It’s therefore quite fortunate that ginger has been shown to be effective against heartworms. The treatment that’s been tried is injections of the extract, and it does take time. However, after 55 days, an average 83% reduction, up to a maximum of 98%, was found. About half the dogs exhibited lethargy early in the treatment, but it’s believed to be a result of their bodies’ need to dispose of the worms, as opposed to an adverse effect.(34,35)
  • Menstrual Pain: A double blind study of young women suffering from menstrual pain compared with mefenamic acid (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory marketed as Ponstel), ibuprofen, ginger powder in capsules, and placebo was performed. Ginger was found to be as effective as both mefenamic acid and ibuprofen.(36)
  • Radiation: With radiation in the news lately, it’s wonderful to learn that ginger has been proven to provide significant benefit against it. One study has demonstrated that it can help prevent vomiting and taste distortion associated with radiation poisoning. Another study administered high doses of ginger extract to mice before their exposure to gamma radiation, and compared them to mice that had received only distilled water before exposure. It reduced the severity of symptoms and mortality. They were protected from gastrointestinal and bone-marrow-related deaths. It’s interesting to note that treatment after exposure provided no benefit.(37,38)
  • Gout, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Knee Osteoarthritis, and Indomethacin: Indomethacin is an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used to treat the pain from inflammation of gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis of the knee. Studies comparing the effect of ginger extract with indomethacin consistently show that ginger is, at a minimum, just as effective, and sometimes even more than indomethacin. Since indomethacin’s adverse effects include renal insufficiency in 40% of the people who take it, jaundice in 10%, headaches in 12%, and elevations in liver function tests indicating harm to the liver, plus a host of other nasty problems, it’s difficult to imagine any legitimate reason for doctors prescribing the drug when they could simply have their patients take ginger extract.(39,40,41)
  • Nausea and Motion Sickness: Ginger has been well studied for its classic ability to ease nausea in all sorts of situations. It has long been used for motion and sea sickness. Studies have been done both to ascertain whether it’s effective—which, of course, it is—and also to try to figure out how it works. Morning sickness, nausea, during pregnancy causes misery for a lot of women. Women suffering from morning sickness were given beverages with ginger during the first trimester of pregnancy and compared with women given placebo. Ginger alleviated the nausea in a highly significant percentage of the women. A trial of taking ginger and protein after chemotherapy demonstrated that patients were able to lessen their intake of anti-emetic medications.(42,43,44,45)
  • Bacterial Diarrhea: The primary cause of death in young children in developing countries is bacterial-induced diarrhea. The bacteria don’t cause it directly. The toxins they release do. Zingerone, a compound found in ginger, binds the toxin so that it cannot interact with the gut, thus preventing diarrhea and the resultant death. The standard treatment now is antibiotics coupled with electrolyte replacement, which would indicate that the antibiotics are not particularly effective. Since the long term effects of antibiotics are now known to be disastrous and antibiotics are expensive, it’s hard to imagine a legitimate reason for not implementing large-scale trials of ginger on children suffering from bacterial diarrhea.(46)
  • Other Benefits: The benefits of ginger are amazing, and they don’t stop with the ones listed above. Here, briefly, are a few more that have been studied:
    • Post-stroke neurological urinary incontinence can be helped with ginger-salt-partitioned moxibustion.(47)
    • Patients with hospital ventilator0induced pneumonia benefit from ginger extract.(48)
    • Trigeminal nerve pain is alleviated with a traditional Japanese herbal combination that includes ginger, Saiko-Keishi-To.(49)
    • Blood urea nitrogen, the BUN of blood tests, is markedly decreased by ginger extract.(50)
    • Cerebral ischemia, small stroke, causes brain damage, including memory loss. Ginger extract significantly reduces damage and alleviates the loss of memory.(51)
    • One study demonstrates that ginger extract may help prevent heart attacks.(52)

Astounding, isn’t it? The range and severity of conditions that ginger can help is stunning, and the degree of effectiveness is even more amazing. It’s time for modern medicine to take a step back and ask itself how it got on such a wrong track. When drugs and treatments that are less effective and also full of adverse effects are used instead of first looking to a natural treatment like ginger, then surely a wrong turn has been taken.

Adverse Effects of Ginger

Ginger is almost completely safe. It is possible, though exceedingly rare, to experience an allergic reaction associated with anaphylactic shock. Obviously, if that occurs, you should not attempt to take it again.

Ginger interacts with many drugs. In most cases, the effect is additive, not contradictory. You are told not to take ginger with these drugs—but frankly, one should ask why the doctor doesn’t start with ginger and add the drugs if needed. Here are some of the drugs involved, according to Drugs.com(53):

  • Any heart medication.
  • Diabetes medications, including insulin, glipizide (Glucotrol), glyburide (Glynase, Diabeta, Micronase), chlorpropamide (Diabinese), tolbutamide (Orinase), tolazamide (Tolinase), troglitazone (Rezulin), rosiglitazone (Avandia), repaglinide (Prandin), metformin (Glucophage), and others.
  • Warfarin (coumadin).
  • Aspirin or other NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), diclofenac (Cataflam, Voltaren), etodolac (Lodine), indomethacin (Indocin), meloxicam (Mobic), nabumetone (Relafen), naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn), piroxicam (Feldene), and others.
  • Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) including ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, Nuprin, others), naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn, Naprelan, Anaprox, others), ketoprofen (Orudis KT, Orudis), indomethacin (Indocin), etodolac (Lodine), nabumetone (Relafen), oxaprozin (Daypro), piroxicam (Feldene), sulindac (Clinoril), tolmetin (Tolectin), and others
  • Blood thinners, usually used for deep vein thrombosis (often during surgeries), including ardeparin (Normiflo), dalteparin (Fragmin), danaparoid (Orgaran), enoxaparin (Lovenox), or heparin.

Of course, if you take other herbs with ginger, be sure to check if they’re blood thinners. If so, you may need to stop either the ginger or the other herb. At least, add one or the other slowly to assure that there are no adverse consequences.

Forms of Ginger

In general, for personal use, there are two forms of ginger: extract and tea. Extracts may be purchased, of course, but be aware that there are two forms of extract, water and alcohol based. With many herbs, water based extracts are fine. However, alcohol based ginger extract has proven to be far superior over and over. Therefore, if you’re planning to use ginger extract medicinally, you should take the alcohol-based variety.

Ginger tea is a treat for many of us. You can buy ginger teas in tea bags, but they’re generally not as beneficial as making your own. It’s not difficult. Just follow these instructions:

Peel about a cubic inch of ginger. You may either slice it thinly or grate it. Boil it in about 1½ cups of water for about 10 minutes. If you wish, you could add a bit of lime or lemon juice. If you want it sweetened, add some honey or stevia. Pour into a cup and enjoy! 

Everyone’s taste is different. This is a starting point. Use more or less ginger as suits you.

With a special thank you to GreenMedInfo—a wonderful resource!

by Heidi Stevenson

References:

Source:

http://gaia-health.com/articles501/000526-ginger.shtml

via healthfreedoms.org

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

How the world changed after 9/11 | World news | guardian.co.uk

How the world changed after 9/11

On the day of September 11, Charlie Skelton attends a symposium of critical thinkers in New York

The heavy syllables of the victims' names boomed out along the streets around Ground Zero. The public were patted down, then allowed up a cramped side road to peer at a distant video screen of the memorial. They filmed the video screen on their mobile phones, filmed each other filming, and film crews filmed them filming.

Filming crowd

It was hardly fertile ground for grief, you'd think. And yet, the weird detachment of the moment was severed by the chanting of the names and the brief tributes of the readers. It was the daughter who said her father's friends tell her that she reminds them of him that did it for me. That, and the list of victims called Jones. Jones after Jones after Jones. Too many Joneses. I took my sniffles back up the street to Starbucks.

And from Starbucks, I went down the rabbit hole. I found myself at a conference on Walker Street called 'How The World Changed After 9/11'. It was packed, but I managed to slide in at the back, to hear a guy called Webster Tarpley chant his own list of names. The names of the 46 military exercises and hijack drills (called things like 'Vigilant Guardian') that were actually taking place on the morning of September 11. "The greatest density of drills in US military history," Tarpley said.

Fake radar blips, dummy hijacks, dummy attacks, fighter jets sent off to Turkey, the skies left unprotected, with the FBI's top anti-terror experts stuck on a training exercise in California. The drills, said Tarpley, were important, because not only did they weaken and confuse US air defence, but there was also a military drill for each major component of the 9/11 attacks. The drills were cover, and the dummy threats were made real.

September 11, he argues, was a coup carried out by a rogue network within the US military and government. A cabal of fascists, working with (and for) a banking oligarchy, "the old boys of Wall Street".

Webster Tarpley Webster Tarpley

"You want to blame Saudi Arabia, or Israel, or Pakistan? You can't. There isn't the evidence." The evidence, Tarpley says, points towards 9/11 as a false flag attack, carried out by a high level clique, that forced a shocked and awestruck US public into a vast and still ongoing war. It was America's very own Reichstag fire. And the official version of the event? "A racist, militaristic, and fascist myth that we must reject."

What I heard, from speaker after speaker, was a heartfelt desire to turn away from the path of destruction, militarism and lies that America has been set upon after 9/11. Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, mourned for Iraq: "One million dead, 4m displaced, and that's a victory?" He sees the failure of Americans to comprehend the scale of the destruction wrought under their flag as nothing less than racist. "In America, we are very good at segregating our tears. Racism is our original sin."

Ray McGovern. Ray McGovern

McGovern quoted from Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham jail: "Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up, but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured." And 9/11, for McGovern, is a "big boil" that needs lancing.

He drew attention to an extraordinary story, barely touched by the mainstream press, that Richard Clarke, who was the White House counter-terrorism czar at the time of the attacks, has recently accused the CIA of deliberately suppressing information before 9/11, information that might have prevented the attacks. Clarke claimed: "There was a high-level decision in the CIA ordering people not to share information." And who made this decision? "I would think it would have been made by the director".

So that would be George Tenet. Director of the CIA from 1997-2004, now a managing director of an investment bank. The former CIA man, McGovern, ends his speech by saying: "Of all the people who should be put in prison, he'd be top of my list."

Another speaker, Mike Rivero, addressed the outrage, which he often felt when the "false flag" analysis of 9/11 is presented. The idea that "we would never do such a thing" or "it's not the sort of thing governments do." He gave a whistlestop tour of state-sponsored attacks and hoodwinkings: the Lusitania, the Maine, the Dodgy Dossier, Saddam's nuclear weapons, the staged burning of the Reichstag, and the notorious Gleiwitz incident in which the Nazis faked an attack on a German radio station to justify the invasion of Poland. His point being that 9/11 was "not unique". There's a historical context.

History, documentation, facts. A respect for life, and a respect for truth. This is what I heard, over and over again, at this remarkable conference. Wayne Madsen – a former naval officer and NSA operative – spoke of the atmosphere of "hype and fear" that still grips America, 10 years after 9/11. A fear that's pumped into us, relentlessly, through our flatscreen HD Orwellian "telescreens".

Wayne Madsen Wayne Madsen

Madsen called for the release of the commission findings that Ludkowski told me about last night: "Let's get those documents out of the National Archives!" But he noted that the man whose job it is to decide what gets released, the administrator of the White House office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is one Cass Sunstein. The same Cass Sunstein that in 2008 urged the government to "cognitively infiltrate" alternative groups like the 9/11 Truth Movement. So releasing those documents probably isn't top of his to-do list.

He's also the same Cass Sunstein that wrote the first op-ed about Julian Assange – the CIA asset and "child of MK Ultra", as Tarpley dubs him. But that's a whole other can of worms …

I found myself blinking back tears for the second time when McGovern read out a poem – in his polished CIA Russian – about a mother mourning the loss of her child. This thread of grieving ran throughout the conference. Wayne Madsen grieved for the loss of "shoeleather journalism", McGovern mourned the death of the fourth estate, while Tarpley spoke of the hollow memorial at Ground Zero – the two "abysses": the reflecting pools, or "voids", as they're often called. He sees these memorials as an appropriately empty vision of "nothingness. Nihil. No ideals, nothing." A nothingness at the heart of America. "But we have to do something."

We have to do something. Even if that something is simply to Google 'Cass Sunstein' and start from there. Begin your own cognitive infiltration. Google 'Vigilant Guardian' or 'Able Danger'. Crosscheck 'Abdel Hakim Belhadj' and 'Al-Qaida'. Begin digging. Begin thinking. And stop believing.

via guardian.co.uk

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FDA Seeks to Outlaw New Dietary Supplements

RED ALERT: FDA Set to Ban Your Supplements

Posted By Dr. Mercola | September 13 2011 | 149,587 views

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Story at-a-glance
  • The FDA's new Draft Guidance on New Dietary Ingredients threatens to remove some of your most commonly used supplements from the market
  • Manufacturers of supplements will be forced to conduct expensive safety studies using absurdly high doses, which will force many out of business—effectively eliminating competition to high-priced pharmaceuticals
  • The FDA guidelines have modeled the outrageous safety thresholds after those in place for food additives, which is in direct violation of DSHEA, which classifies dietary supplements as foods, not food additives, in order to protect consumer access to dietary supplements
  • Defend your right to continue using supplements by taking action now!

The FDA has issued a proposed mandate that represents the greatest threat to dietary supplements since 1994. Back in the early 1990s, consumers were so alarmed by FDA bullying that they staged a massive revolt. The result was that Congress passed a law prohibiting the FDA from banning popular nutrients (as the agency had threatened to do).

There was, however, a loophole in the 1994 law. The FDA was given authority to regulate ingredients introduced after October 15, 1994.

It has been 17 years, but the FDA just issued draconian proposals as to how it intends to regulate what it now calls "new dietary ingredients". You can find the FDA Draft Guidance on New Dietary Ingredients (NDI's) here. If implemented, some of the most effective nutrients you are taking will be removed from the market. This includes many fish oil formulas and natural plant extracts. A detailed analysis of the FDA Draft Guidance is available here.

These oppressive rules are exactly what the 1994 law (DSHEA) sought to prevent. The FDA is using its authority in direct violation of Congressional intent.

In order for these ingredients you are using today to return to the market, the FDA will require manufacturers to conduct outrageously expensive studies using absurdly high doses, in some situations multiplied by a "safety factor" up to 2,000-times the recommended dosage on a per product basis.

The FDA defines dietary supplements as being "new" if they were introduced after October 15, 1994. That means that even certain nutrients that have been safely used over the course of three decades will be subject to the FDA's oppressive policies that mandate costly animal testing.

The FDA Views Supplements in Same Light as Synthetic Food Preservatives

According to the new guidelines, the FDA believes that "new dietary supplements" must be regulated similarly to synthetic food preservatives. The FDA guidelines have modeled the outrageous safety thresholds after those in place for food additives. This appears to be in direct violation of DSHEA, the law enacted in 1994 to protect consumer access to dietary supplements, which classifies dietary supplements as foods, not food additives.

The FDA proposes that new dietary supplement ingredients should adhere to aggressive safety margins, which are typically reserved for chemical compounds known to be dangerous in all but the most miniscule concentrations.

Since food additives or preservatives such as aspartame, monosodium glutamate, and sodium nitrate are known to cause cancer or other severe health problems, the FDA has implemented safety guidelines which limit allowable concentrations of these food additives to levels that are supposed to be physiologically inert.

The fact that the FDA is trying to impose the same limits upon dietary supplements seems to be arbitrary and completely unfounded. In fact, when someone takes a dietary supplement, their intent is to positively affect the structure or function of their bodies in some way – limiting dosages of dietary supplements to physiologically inert levels defeats the entire purpose of supplementation with health-sustaining nutrients.

The FDA's new guidelines are so flawed that even nutrients shown to be completely safe in hundreds of human clinical studies would fail to accommodate the unreasonable safety margins.

To give you an example, each manufacturer of certain fish oils would have to conduct a one year study where animals would have to consume the human equivalent of 240,000 milligrams each day of fish oil.

Another option under the FDA's proposed mandates is to conduct a 90-day, 1,000 – fold safety margin study in which two species of animals, one being non-rodent – likely young beagle dogs, will theoretically consume the equivalent of 2.4 million milligrams of fish oil daily. We know of virtually no species can tolerate this high dose, so by default, FDA guidelines will make it impossible for certain omega-3 supplements to be sold. (Note typical dose of EPA/DHA people take each day is around 2,400 mg—100 times less than what the FDA proposes must be tested.)

Since these are not patented drugs, no supplement maker will be able to afford these "safety" studies, which means that many of the nutrients you now purchase at low prices will convert into high-priced drugs.

Pharmaceutical Industry Profit Threatened By Low Cost Supplements

It appears that the FDA is claiming that dietary supplements are unsafe, and in order to "protect consumers" the agency must place a stranglehold on the dietary supplement industry by requesting exorbitant safety testing. These ludicrous safety thresholds are in excess of those required by pharmaceutical drugs despite studies showing supplements are far safer than drugs.

According to the 2001 report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), of the substances implicated in fatal poisonings in 2001, 84.6 percent were pharmaceutical drugs, with analgesics being implicated as the primary cause of death in 32 percent of fatalities or 341 deaths. This compares with 0.8 percent for all dietary supplements combined, even including substances such as dinitrophenol, a dangerous (and illegal) substance banned in 1938, as well as the central nervous system stimulant Ma Huang (Ephedra). Interestingly, the anti-asthma drug theophylline alone was responsible for 15 deaths, 66 percent more than all the available dietary supplements combined.

There is, however, a massive economic benefit for the drug industry if the proposed guidelines are enforced by the FDA. Health conscious Americans who properly supplement slash their risk of degenerative disease. The FDA's new rules, if enacted, will force the price of many supplements to surge upwards, while removing many effective ones altogether. That means that more aging people will have to rely on side effect laden prescription drugs to treat the degenerative diseases they will contract because they will be denied access to health-promoting nutrients.

What You Can Do to Stop this Impending Carnage!

No one can sit on the sidelines with an emergency of this magnitude about to befall everyone who depends on dietary supplements. As citizens, we have the constitutional right to petition the government to redress our grievances. In this case, the FDA proposals pose a direct threat to our health and longevity.

We therefore have to take extraordinary measures to defend our right to continue using supplements that our very lives depend on, and to gain access to new natural ingredients that demonstrate efficacy in scientific studies.

I ask each one of you contact your representatives by following this link:

Contact your local representative now!

Recall how Consumers revolted back in 1994 and the result was a glorious victory over FDA tyranny!

Let your voice be heard by exercising your right to petition the government against these serious violations of the law and scientific principle. Please be sure to call, fax, or send a certified letter to your representative - emails can be easily dismissed.

Here is a set of talking points for your consideration:

  • My name is [Name] and I am a constituent of [Congress Member's name].
  • I am very concerned about the new FDA draft guidance on dietary supplements and new dietary ingredients.
  • I request that Congress hold hearings and take action to review the FDA's draft guidance and stop their overreach of power.
  • The FDA's draft guidance flies in the face of the original congressional intent of the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act: The guidance turns what was meant to be a simple notification system for new dietary ingredients into a preapproval scheme that Congress did not intend to create.
  • Congress recognized that dietary supplements are natural ingredients and therefore inherently safer than drugs and chemical food ingredients. It did not intend that the FDA would have the power to approve or reject dietary supplements.
  • The FDA's draft guidance creates unnecessary regulations that limit my access to dietary supplements I rely on. The expensive and burdensome process will force between 20,000 and 42,000 dietary supplements to be removed from the market and will increase the cost of those supplements that remain.
  • The draft guidance hurts our economy. Expert analyses show that this guidance will cause a total economic loss of $21.2 billion to $39.8 billion annually.
  • Thank you for your time.

Tips:

  • Be courteous and respectful.
  • Keep your comments brief and focused on the facts.
  • Always thank the staff member for their time taking your call.
via articles.mercola.com

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Friday, September 9, 2011

After 9/11, Perry’s Texas Wasted Homeland Security Money On Sports Cars, Neckties, And A Hog Catcher | ThinkProgress

After 9/11, Perry’s Texas Wasted Homeland Security Money On Sports Cars, Neckties, And A Hog Catcher

By Marie Diamond on Sep 7, 2011 at 1:46 pm

Texas officials used DHS money to buy two 2011 Camaros.

In the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, Texas has received at least $1.7 billion from the Department of Homeland Security, with little accountability over how lawmakers spent the money. Instead of using the federal DHS grants to strengthen the state’s security, officials often used the funds for personal extravagances like sports cars:

[A] Fort Worth Star-Telegram examination of thousands of purchases also found a a $21 fish tank in Seguin, a $24,000 latrine on wheels in Fort Worth, and a real pork project — a hog catcher in Liberty County.

Homeland Security paid for body bags, garbage bags and Ziploc bags.

If taxpayers had a say, they might have gone along with some purchases, such as $24,012 in body armor for the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority. But what about the two 2011 Camaros, each $30,884, used in Kleberg County border enforcement?

A report this year by the inspector general of the U.S. Homeland Security Department criticized the state’s management of Homeland Security grants from 2006 to 2008.

The audit concluded that Texas passed on Homeland Security funds to local governments “without adequately defined goals and objectives to strengthen preparedness and response to attacks or disasters.” Instead of monitoring how local officials were performing their responsibilities, the state asked them to rate their own performance. Predictably, without oversight from the state government, local officials used the money as they saw fit — which included expenses that had nothing to do with making citizens safer.

McClatchy reports that Gov. Rick Perry (R) appointed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) in 2005 to hold the purse strings for Homeland Security funds. DPS, in turn, evaluated only about 60 recipients a year “with little or no emphasis on program performance.” Embarrassing incidents of waste ensued, like a $250,000 first-responder trailer that was parked and never used after it was purchased, or body armor that expired in 2003. Money was used for expensive and unproven technological gadgets, like an “eye ball camera” and “sprinkler head cameras,” as well as items like hats, neckties, glasses, drinking cups, dry erasers, and a tape measure with listening devices.

There were also no price controls or requirements that officials look for the best rates. The City of Alamo and El Paso county bought the same power binoculars for $220.03 and $369.99 a pair, respectively. Fort Worth used a grant to buy a $24,275 latrine while another city spent just $441 on a collapsible toilet. Liberty County used grants to buy $6,167 worth of animal crates and a hog catcher snare that documents say “will be used to aid in catching and controlling unruly swine at holding sites.”

McClatchy notes that while officials have been abusing DHS funds, “the Congressional Research Service has reported that likely terrorist targets, the nation’s half-million miles of oil and gas pipelines, have been left vulnerable.”

via thinkprogress.org

Give a man a fish and you've fed him for a day...
Teach a man to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime...
Give a politician a fish and he will steal your boat
and pass a law to make it a crime to fish without a license...

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

EPA Declares Hay a Pollutant in Effort to Antagonize Small and Mid-Sized U.S. Cattle Feeders

EPA Declares Hay a Pollutant in Effort to Antagonize Small and Mid-Sized U.S. Cattle Feeders 

September 1, 2011 Billings, Mont. – During his presentation on the status of the nation’s new country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law, and on behalf of the R-CALF USA COOL Committee, R-CALF USA member and Kansas cattle feeder Mike Callicrate was asked a non-COOL question that set convention goers on their heels during the 12th Annual R-CALF USA Convention held August 26-27 in Rapid City, S.D.  

“Has the Environmental Protection Agency declared hay a pollutant?” an audience member asked.  Callicrate responded affirmatively and explained that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently initiated a formal enforcement action against his Kansas feedlot for, among other things, failure to store his hay in a pollution containment zone. “Now that EPA has declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that leaves a broken hay bale in the field is potentially violating EPA rules and subject to an EPA enforcement action,” Callicrate said. “How far are we going to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?”    

Callicrate is permitted to handle 12,000 cattle at a time in his feedlot, which is considered a small to mid-sized feedlot in an industry now dominated by mega-feedlots such as those owned by the world’s largest beef packer – JBS-Brazil – with a one-time capacity of over 900,000 cattle; or the other mega-feedlot that also feeds hundreds of thousands of cattle at a time and is owned by the nation’s second-largest beef packer - Cargill; or the other handful of mega feedlots with capacities of hundreds of thousands of cattle such as those owned by Cactus Feeders, Inc. and Friona Industries.  

In comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice, R-CALF USA estimated the above named mega-feedlots feed 18 percent of the nation’s fed cattle each year while one-fourth of the nation’s cattle are fed in feedlots with a one time capacity of 50,000 head or more. The largest of feedlots are getting larger and Callicrate’s feedlot is among the group of small to mid-sized feedlots that are being pressured to exit the industry so beef packers and corporate feedlot owners can increase their respective capacities. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that 45 feedlots with one-time capacities of between 1,000 or more cattle but less than 16,000 cattle have exited the industry from 2008 to 2010.   

R-CALF USA contents beef packers are deliberately forcing small to mid-sized feedlots out of business through unfair and abusive cattle-buying practices that effectively restrict market access for all but the largest of feedlots. “The proposed GIPSA rule (USDA Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration rule) will put a stop to such unfair and abusive practices, but only if USDA issues a final rule,” said Callicrate. 

Callicrate’s feedlot is the perfect example.  In late 1998, the nation’s largest beef packers blackballed Callicrate because he called attention to the unfair buying practices of the corporate meatpackers.  Callicrate was forced to cease his feedlot operations until 2000 when he opened Ranch Foods Direct, a meat processing and distribution company in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and began marketing his own beef more directly to consumers. 

“I believe the EPA’s enforcement action is a premeditated effort by EPA to partner with the beef packers to finish the job the beef packer’s couldn’t do alone,” said Callicrate adding, “along with my feedlot, the EPA has filed enforcement actions against five other smaller feedlots, including one with only 400 cattle. 

Callicrate said the EPA does not appear to be going after the corporate feedlots.  “EPA is turning a blind eye toward the mega-feedlots that are a real risk for pollution and, instead, is antagonizing small to mid-sized family operations in an effort to help their packer-partners capture the entire live cattle supply chain away from family farm and ranch operations.” 

We thought the Obama Administration was going to bring about a change to the ongoing corporate control and corporate dominance that has been decimating the U.S. cattle industry. I guess we’re seeing that change right now. Rather than reduce corporate control and dominance the EPA is overtly partnering with the corporate beef packers to accelerate the exodus of sustainable, independent family operations.  This really smells,” Callicrate concluded. 

Note:  For satellite photographs of Callicrate’s feedlot compared to larger, industrialized feedlots, go to http://nobull.mikecallicrate.com/  

# # # 

R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 46 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com  or, call 406-252-2516.   

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Friday, September 2, 2011

NORTH DAKOTA’S ECONOMIC “MIRACLE”—IT’S NOT OIL

NORTH DAKOTA’S ECONOMIC “MIRACLE”—IT’S NOT OIL

Ellen Brown
August 31st, 2011
www.webofdebt.com/articles/north_dakota.php

North Dakota has had the nation's lowest unemployment ever since the economy tanked. What's its secret?

In an article in The New York Times on August 19th titled “The North Dakota Miracle,” Catherine Rampell writes:

Forget the Texas Miracle. Let’s instead take a look at North Dakota, which has the lowest unemployment rate and the fastest job growth rate in the country.

According to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, North Dakota had an unemployment rate of just 3.3 percent in July—that’s just over a third of the national rate (9.1 percent), and about a quarter of the rate of the state with the highest joblessness (Nevada, at 12.9 percent).

North Dakota has had the lowest unemployment in the country (or was tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the country) every single month since July 2008.

Its healthy job market is also reflected in its payroll growth numbers. . . . [Y]ear over year, its payrolls grew by 5.2 percent. Texas came in second, with an increase of 2.6 percent.

Why is North Dakota doing so well? For one of the same reasons that Texas has been doing well: oil.

Oil is certainly a factor, but it is not what has put North Dakota over the top. Alaska has roughly the same population as North Dakota and produces nearly twice as much oil, yet unemployment in Alaska is running at 7.7 percent. Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming have all benefited from a boom in energy prices, with Montana and Wyoming extracting much more gas than North Dakota has. The Bakken oil field stretches across Montana as well as North Dakota, with the greatest Bakken oil production coming from Elm Coulee Oil Field in Montana. Yet Montana’s unemployment rate, like Alaska’s, is 7.7% percent.

A number of other mineral-rich states were initially not affected by the economic downturn, but they lost revenues with the later decline in oil prices. North Dakota is the only state to be in continuous budget surplus since the banking crisis of 2008. Its balance sheet is so strong that it recently reduced individual income taxes and property taxes by a combined $400 million, and is debating further cuts. It also has the lowest foreclosure rate and lowest credit card default rate in the country, and it has had NO bank failures in at least the last decade.

If its secret isn’t oil, what is so unique about the state? North Dakota has one thing that no other state has: its own state-owned bank.

Access to credit is the enabling factor that has fostered both a boom in oil and record profits from agriculture in North Dakota. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) does not compete with local banks but partners with them, helping with capital and liquidity requirements. It participates in loans, provides guarantees, and acts as a sort of mini-Fed for the state. In 2010, according to the BND’s annual report:

The Bank provided Secured and Unsecured Federal Fund Lines to 95 financial institutions with combined lines of over $318 million for 2010. Federal Fund sales averaged over $13 million per day, peaking at $36 million in June.

The BND also has a loan program called Flex PACE, which allows a local community to provide assistance to borrowers in areas of jobs retention, technology creation, retail, small business, and essential community services. In 2010, according to the BND annual report:

The need for Flex PACE funding was substantial, growing by 62 percent to help finance essential community services as energy development spiked in western North Dakota. Commercial bank participation loans grew to 64 percent of the entire $1.022 billion portfolio.

The BND’s revenues have also been a major boost to the state budget. It has contributed over $300 million in revenues over the last decade to state coffers, a substantial sum for a state with a population less than one-tenth the size of Los Angeles County. According to a study by the Center for State Innovation, from 2007 to 2009 the BND added nearly as much money to the state’s general fund as oil and gas tax revenues did (oil and gas revenues added $71 million while the Bank of North Dakota returned $60 million). Over a 15-year period, according to other data, the BND has contributed more to the state budget than oil taxes have.      

North Dakota’s money and banking reserves are being kept within the state and invested there. The BND’s loan portfolio shows a steady uninterrupted increase in North Dakota lending programs since 2006.

According to the annual BND report:

Financially, 2010 was our strongest year ever. Profits increased by nearly $4 million to $61.9 million during our seventh consecutive year of record profits. Earnings were fueled by a strong and growing deposit base, brought about by a surging energy and agricultural economy. We ended the year with the highest capital level in our history at just over $325 million. The Bank returned a healthy 19 percent ROE, which represents the state’s return on its investment.

A 19 percent return on equity! How many states are getting that sort of return on their Wall Street investments?

Timothy Canova is Professor of International Economic Law at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. In a June 2011 paper called “The Public Option: The Case for Parallel Public Banking Institutions,” he compares North Dakota’s financial situation to California’s. He writes of North Dakota and its state-owned bank:

The state deposits its tax revenues in the Bank, which in turn ensures that a high portion of state funds are invested in the state economy. In addition, the Bank is able to remit a portion of its earnings back to the state treasury . . . . Thanks in part to these institutional arrangements, North Dakota is the only state that has been in continuous budget surplus since before the financial crisis and it has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

He then compares the dire situation in California:

In contrast, California is the largest state economy in the nation, yet without a state-owned bank, is unable to steer hundreds of billions of dollars in state revenues into productive investment within the state. Instead, California deposits its many billions in tax revenues in large private banks which often lend the funds out-of-state, invest them in speculative trading strategies (including derivative bets against the state’s own bonds), and do not remit any of their earnings back to the state treasury. Meanwhile, California suffers from constrained private credit conditions, high unemployment levels well above the national average, and the stagnation of state and local tax receipts. The state’s only response has been to stumble from one budget crisis to another for the past three years, with each round of spending cuts further weakening its economy, tax base, and credit rating.

Not all states have oil, of course (and it’s hardly a sustainable economic basis), but all could learn from the state-owned bank that allows North Dakota to capitalize on its resources to full advantage. States that deposit their revenues and invest their capital in large Wall Street banks are giving this economic opportunity away.

This article was written for YES! Magazine. Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and the author of eleven books, including Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free. Her websites are http://WebofDebt.com and http://PublicBankingInstitute.org.

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DOJ Advises Gibson Guitar to Export Labor to Madagascar | RedState

DOJ Advises Gibson Guitar to Export Labor to Madagascar


Posted by Ben Howe (Profile)

Wednesday, August 31st at 11:16PM EDT

39 Comments

The Gibson Guitar saga has taken a sinister turn.

It seems that the Department of Justice wasn’t satisfied with merely raiding the law abiding factories of Gibson Guitar with armed agents, shutting down their operation costing them millions, and leaving the American company in the dark as to how to proceed without going out of business.

Now, according to CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, agents of the United States government are bluntly informing them that they’d be better off shipping their manufacturing labor overseas.

In an interview with KMJ AM’s “The Chris Daniel Show,” Juszkiewicz revealed some startling information.

CHRIS DANIEL:  Mr. Juszkiewicz, did an agent of the US government suggest to you that your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of American labor?

HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ:  They actually wrote that in a pleading.

CHRIS DANIEL:  Excuse me?

HENRY JUSKIEWICZ:   They actually wrote that it a pleading.

CHRIS DANIEL:  That your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of our labor?

HENRY JUSKIEWICZ:  Yes

So the government attacked them in the first place by citing obscure regulations that probably weren’t violated about importation of wood. Now they are suggesting that all these problems would go away if they simply exported their labor.

Had it simply been said in passing by an agent, one could write it off as a lone sarcastic agent, trying to push buttons.  But the fact that they actually wrote it in the pleading is a level of hubris that goes well beyond over zealous law enforcement officials and passes straight into what can easily be translated as an out of control and corrupt targeting of an American corporation.

When President Obama gives his jobs speech next week, let’s hope he has an answer for why our government would want to force and coerce corporations to send jobs overseas.

Here’s the audio of the CEO making the incredible allegation:

Download audio here

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