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	Pam Rotella's Vegetarian FUN page -- News on health, nutrition, the environment, politics, and more! ARCHIVES 2009 Week of 8th to 14th of November 2009 Miriam Makeba - The Click Song 1966 PAM COMMENTARY: After linking to South Park's "Starvin' Marvin in Space" episode and complaining that Ethiopian languages don't have "clicks," and that even if they did, African language clicks don't sound like that, I decided to give my readers a listen to some REAL African clicks. Here's Miriam Makeba singing the "Click Song" in the language of the Xhosa, one of the more populous ethnic groups that uses clicks. (Makeba died in November of 2008 after a concert in Italy.) Eminent Domain Outrage in Connecticut: Pharmaceutical Giant Pfizer to Leave New London, Site of Major Housing Battle [DN] DANA BERLINER: Well, what happened was New London entered into an incredibly risky speculative real estate deal. And like many risky speculative real estate deals, it didn�t work out. Now, if they had�if a private person did that, we wouldn�t be here today discussing it. The problem was that New London did it with tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money and while violating other people�s rights and throwing them out of their homes for it. What this all tells us is eminent domain should not be used for private development projects. JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Michael Cristofaro, I�d like to ask, your reaction when you heard the news that Pfizer was pulling out? Apparently, they didn�t even give any advanced notification to the town leaders of New London that this was happening. And could you talk about your reaction? MICHAEL CRISTOFARO: Well, you know, the town leaders say they didn�t have a clue on this, but they actually did. They knew what was going on. They just don�t want to admit it. But when I heard the news, it really felt like someone was basically stabbing me in my heart, because it was like reliving the whole thing all over again, that we lost our homes for nothing. And that�s what it was about. I mean, it�s a brownfield. And when someone comes in and says, �You need to give up your home for the betterment of the community,� and they have this plan that�s basically based around Pfizer�s, and all of a sudden Pfizer comes in and tells them, �Hey, we�re leaving the area,� and there�s eighty acres now sitting there empty, I�m extremely hurt. Huge rise in birth defects in FallujaIraqi former battle zone sees abnormal clusters of infant tumours and deformities [WRH] Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting. The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born. Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects � which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable. A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war � including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted. Ukraine; Virus Is Mixture Of H1N1 And Parainfluenza, Causes Cardiopulmonary Failure; Indicates BioWeapon [AJ] Based on autopsies, we have come to the conclusion: it�s not pneumonia, but cardiopulmonary insufficiency and cardiogenic shock ... The virus enters directly into the lungs, there is bleeding ... Antibiotics should not be used ... Why do we have such a high mortality rate in the country? Because people are going to pharmacies to get medicine instead of going to their doctors to be treated ... No it is not pneumonic plague. It�s all nonsense ... antibiotics do not help ... Those with strong immune systems will survive. People with weak immune systems will succumb to the illness ... Face Masks provide 30% extra protection. Wearing glasses gives an additional 10% protection, that is 40%, because the virus penetrates the mucose membranes. The Head of the Chernivtsi regional forensic bureau, Professor Victor Bachinsky PhD, makes a strong statement: all the victims of the virus in Bukovina (22 persons aged 20 to 40 years) died not from bilateral (double) pneumonia, as previously thought, but as a result of viral distress syndrome, i.e. the total destruction of the lungs. We caught up with Professor Bachinsky, to find out how he came to this conclusion, and how people can protect themselves from this disease. Health timebomb hits baby boomers: Over-60s suffer more illnesses caused by bad diet and lack of exercise (UK) [R] Earlier this week, research suggested that those born in 1948 in Britain were the' lucky generation' because they benefited hugely from the end of National Service, the right to free education and healthcare and the property boom. But the U.S. study suggests that much of those advantages have been squandered by today's 61-year-olds. Dr Ian Campbell, a GP and medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said that many people were stuck in a vicious circle. Growing waistlines make exercise more difficult, making it harder to lose weight. Some advances in healthcare could also be to blame for the backward trend. 'We have been lulled into a false sense of security that pharmaceuticals are the answer to our health problems,' he said. 'So we get statistics saying that the number of deaths from heart disease is falling but that is because we are keeping people alive with drugs. 'That is admirable but it would be far better if we could cut the amount of heart disease in the first place.' H1N1 death toll estimated at 3,900 in U.S. Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Nearly 3,900 people, including about 540 children, are believed to have died from the H1N1 flu in the first six months of the epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The figure is a sharp increase from previous counts of laboratory-confirmed cases. But Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the estimate gives a "more accurate picture" of the scale of the pandemic. The figure was based on a detailed analysis of data from several dozen districts around the country, she said. The method used to calculate the mortality figures is similar to that used to produce estimates of ordinary seasonal flu deaths, which are believed to number about 36,000 a year. PAM COMMENTARY: OK, so even if you take these higher numbers as fact (although there's no reason to do so without published methodology that can be reviewed), let's do the math. A "normal" flu season, according to the same article, kills 36,000 people per year. That's 18,000 per 6 months. The swine flu, hyped endlessly as something to fear, killed 3,900 people over 6 months -- fewer than 25% of deaths from a regular flu season. It seems that initial reports of swine flu being milder than the regular flu were accurate. And people can try to credit the swine flu vaccine, but even if you believe that the vaccine works, people get immunized against the regular flu every year and die anyway. Monsanto's GM potatoes on the loose [WRH] Monsanto NewLeaf potatoes came from Prince Edward Island in Canada and were exported to Ukraine in 1997 and 1998 with the help of Solanum-PEI, a marketing joint venture company of the Canadian provincial government. They were then planted in seven sites Ukraine under the disguise of field tests. However, when the project aroused strong opposition and public rejection in Ukraine it was abandoned and the harvested potatoes were buried in the ground. "Monsanto conducted no prior environmental assessment even though the law in Ukraine requires one," said Kruszewska. "Also, to bury the potatoes shows the total lack of respect for the Ukrainian environment by Monsanto because the Kanamycin antibiotic resistance gene in the GE potatoes risks being transferred to soil bacteria." Monsanto NewLeaf potatoes are engineered to produce a toxin which kills the Colorado Potato Beetle. It also contains a gene conferring resistance to the antibiotic, Kanamycin. Field tests for crops containing the same antibiotic gene were rejected by Swiss authorities this spring. Only last year Greenpeace revealed a similar kind of project by Monsanto in newly independent state of Georgia. Government delegations gathered in Vienna are in their third day of negotiations to agree on a set of international rules that would control exports of GMOs like Monsanto potatoes. "Most of the world still lacks national laws to deal with genetically engineered organisms," said Louise Gale, Greenpeace political advisor. "Therefore we need strong international regulation to protect these countries and biodiversity from genetic pollution." Flooding from Ida remnants hits Northeast; Virginia, North Carolina still feeling storm via massive power outages NORFOLK, Virginia - Remnants of Tropical Storm Ida pounded the East Coast on Friday, flooding coastal areas in New Jersey and Delaware after slamming the Carolinas and Virginia. Strong wind and waves were causing severe beach erosion along the New Jersey shore, but the rain was not as heavy as predicted which could help ease the flooding. Crews attempted to stabilize a 570-foot barge carrying containers of chemicals that grounded in Virginia Beach after it broke free Thursday night from a tugboat that was towing it from Puerto Rico to New Jersey. Coast Guard calls in strike team for runaway barge The Coast Guard has called in a specially trained strike team to assist with the removal of a runaway barge that's drifting dangerously close to a Sandbridge fishing pier. The barge is loaded with containers full of hazardous chemicals. An early report that a large amount of chlorine was on board turned out to be incorrect - there are only residual amounts of that chemical, said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Mike Hvozda. Emergency officials stressed that at this time no chemicals appear to have leaked. The area where the barge grounded is largely uninhabited, they said, and they have not ordered any evacuations. This afternoon, a salvage team flooded the vessel's ballast tanks, hoping to slow or stop it before it causes any damage to the fishing pier at Little Island Park. As of about 5:30 p.m., the barge was 75 to 100 yards from the pier, moving about 30 feet every half-hour, Hvozda said. �At this point whatever can be done on board the barge...has been done," he said. "So now we�re hoping for the best�for it to ground a little bit farther on to shore.� Officials: Top White House lawyer to be pushed out [WRH] Democratic officials said Craig was ousted because of frustration among senior White House aides over his handling of the plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. As the White House's top lawyer, Craig was pivotal in advising Obama to sign an executive order during his first week in office promising to shut the prison by the end of January 2010. In a politically embarrassing move that has frustrated some of the president's liberal supporters, White House aides have since backed off that deadline, citing complex legal issues surrounding what to do with the approximately 200 terror suspects still detained at Guantanamo. Some administration officials privately believe Craig should have better anticipated the pitfalls. However, his supporters believe he is being used as a scapegoat and note he was not the only top official who supported the ironclad executive order. One of the Democratic officials acknowledged Craig's tenure had been a "little choppy," but downplayed the exit as part of the normal turnover in any administration after nearly one year in office. Craig was one of the lawyers defending then-President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. He became an early and active supporter of Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries, angering backers of then-Sen. Hillary Clinton. That is one of the reasons why allies of Craig are frustrated he is being replaced so early in the administration. Watchdog: New York State Regulation of Natural Gas Wells Has Been �Woefully Insufficient for Decades.� [DN] AMY GOODMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait. �It�s actually radioactive.� What do you mean? WALTER HANG: Believe it or not, when the water gets drawn out of this deep rock formation, there�s radon, there�s uranium, so the water that comes out is radioactive, as well as toxic-contaminated. So, one of the key problems is, what do you do with all this wastewater? And that�s the issue that we investigated. So, New York has had natural gas drilling for almost 200 years, and everyone at the state government and industry level has said, �We�ve never had a problem. We�ve been drilling. It�s reliable technology. No problems.� When we looked at the State of New York�s own data, however, we found, again, fires, explosions, huge uncontrolled releases of wastewater that went into people�s drinking water, went into wetlands, streams. Many of these problems haven�t been cleaned up, even after decades. Arguably the worst case was in Freedom, New York. Someone named Dale Fox was drilling a vertical well, and he hit a gas pocket. The natural gas was incredibly pressurized. It came blasting out of this 2,000-foot-deep hole. It picked up petroleum on the way up. It shot out of the hole. The wind blew this incredibly flammable explosive mixture onto the drill rig. They had to shut off the drill rig. Then they couldn�t kill the well. They couldn�t stop the gas from exploding out of the well. It got in a rock fracture, and in a matter of minutes it went 8,000 feet. It contaminated twelve homes, that were evacuated. It polluted drinking water wells. It polluted drainage ditches, ponds. And it came up in this farmer�s barn, where his dairy herd was. Believe it or not, more than ten years after that release, the water is still undrinkable. And in the New York City reservoir system, the only protection would be that you can�t drill a well within 300 feet, compared to this problem which went 8,000 feet. So these regulations that have been proposed by the Governor, David Paterson, are totally inadequate. And again, they�re based on this false assumption that the existing regulations are adequate. And that�s how come I�ve written to him to say, �Withdraw this proposal, look at the problems that your own Department of Environmental Conservation has documented, and come back when you have something that�s actually going to assure that this drilling can be done safely and without harming public health.� AMY GOODMAN: I have seen images that you�ve posted on your website of water lighting up, being flammable, light�water catching fire. WALTER HANG: This is just incredible. About a year ago�actually, a little bit more than a year ago, basically, a Vietnam vet living in Candor, New York had discovered that, even though he had lived in the same house since 1962, his water started to release gas, and he discovered that you could light it. And he was immediately east of an area where they had begun drilling. So, last January, he complained to the Department of Environmental Conservation. He said, �Hey, my water is flammable. I can light it.� Ex-Rep. Jefferson (D-La.) gets 13 years in freezer cash case Former congressman William J. Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, the longest prison term ever handed down to a member of Congress convicted of corruption charges. The sentence for the Lousiana Democrat fell far short of the 27 to 33 years suggested under federal sentencing guidelines, a recommendation endorsed by prosecutors. But it exceeded the previous record for congressional corruption: the eight year and four month prison term of former congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham, received in 2006 for taking bribes from defense contractors. Jefferson's case was made famous by the $90,000 in what prosecutors said was bribe money that the FBI found stuffed into his freezer and a legal battle over the raid of his Washington office that reached the highest levels of the U.S. government. He was convicted in August in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on 11 counts that included bribery, racketeering and money laundering. Jurors acquitted Jefferson on five other counts. Fat mothers-to-be banned from giving birth at their local hospital (UK) [AJ] Pregnant women are to be barred from giving birth at their local hospital if midwives consider them to be too fat, it emerged today. Mothers-to-be with a body mass index of over 34 � the equivalent of a woman of 5ft 6in weighing 15 stone - will be turned away from the unit because of fears among staff that obese patients could die there during child birth. Instead they will then be forced to travel a further 20 miles to another hospital which boasts a more high-tech maternity unit. Body mass index calculations are used to work out whether or not a person is a healthy weight for their height. A BMI of over 30 is considered obese, and over 40 is very obese. Mothers-to-be with a high BMI are believed to carry an increased risk of bleeding and complications during labour. Today a spokesman for the Weston General Hospital in Somerset said they did not have the facilities to deal with more complicated births. She said: 'The unit is midwife led, and there are no specialist consultants present. There never have been. Fort Hood suspect faces paralysis, lawyer says WASHINGTON � The attorney for the Army psychiatrist accused of killing fellow soldiers at Fort Hood says doctors have told the soldier he may be paralyzed from the waist down. John Galligan said Friday that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan told him that he has no feeling in his legs and doctors say the condition may be permanent. Galligan says Hasan also told him he had extreme pain in his hands. Hasan was shot by police officers responding to last week's shootings at Fort Hood. Galligan spoke with him Thursday in the intensive care unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Galligan told the CBS Early Show that Hasan was alert but began to fade toward the end of their hour-long meeting Thursday. Hasan was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the attack at the sprawling Texas post that also left 29 people injured. Galligan says Hasan's medical condition remains "extremely serious." But he says Hasan was alert enough to know he was speaking with his lawyer. Quebec nationalists interrupt Prince Charles tour; Canadian riot police called in as army hall in Montreal is besieged by protesters chanting anti-monarchy slogans [R] Prince Charles's official visit to Canada has been marred by anti-monarchy protests as a group of Quebec nationalists clashed with riot police during a demonstration in Montreal. The group staged a sit-in protest outside the regimental hall of the Black Watch of Canada last night. More than 100 protesters held a demonstration as Charles, who is colonel-in-chief of the regiment, was due to present new regimental colours. The arrival of the prince and Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall, was delayed by 40 minutes as police cleared the streets. Waving the provincial flag of Quebec and anti-royal placards, protesters chanted "Majesty go home" and the independence call "The Quebecois in Quebec". Some of the group threw eggs at soldiers leaving the regimental hall before police arrived. A Canadian riot unit was called and began forcing the group away from the hall's entrance but scuffles broke out as demonstrators clashed with officers carrying shields and batons. The protesters were eventually pushed down a side road and the prince � dressed in full military uniform complete with beret and sporran � and duchess were able to enter. The prince reportedly apologised to people in the hall for being delayed. "First of all I just wanted to say how very sorry my wife and I are to have kept you all waiting so long � I hear there's a little local disturbance," he was quoted as saying. Liberals cry �unfair� after Fox orders unbalanced YouTube purge [WRH] Liberal bloggers are accusing Fox News of launching an Internet war against them in a campaign to selectively remove Fox clips from YouTube. On Wednesday, YouTube shut down the popular News1News channel, which featured news clips that many progressive bloggers and news sites would add to their stories. On the rare occasion, Raw Story also embedded News1News clips in stories having to do with media coverage. The channel provided clips from all news networks, but often focused on Fox's controversial commentators. The decision to shut down News1News came after Fox News issued 150 take-down notices to the channel, which they are entitled to do under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, reports Adrian Chen at Gawker. YouTube's policy is to shut down any accounts that receive three or more take-down notices, so News1News was immediately pulled offline. But Fox News' move appears to be limited to News1News, while other YouTube channels -- those viewed as having conservative leanings -- remain untouched. Chen points out that the Glenn Beck Daily Clips channel continues to operate, although it features 614 clips, as of last count, of Glenn Beck's Fox show. The Conservative Nation channel, with close to 200 clips, is also still online. "South Park" Takes On Glenn Beck: Cartman Leads Campaign Against "Communist" President (VIDEO) [BF] Eric Cartman is the new Glenn Beck. Last night on "South Park" the chubby youngster took over morning announcements and turned them from standard bullet points into long screeds about the student class president. Turns out Eric hates her and as a result devotes all his time to creating and promoting crazy conspiracy theories about her time in office. Sound familiar? He even wrote a book that claimed to be about how the school is suffering under her leadership, but was really just 500 pages of him calling Wendy a slut. South Park makers comment on how much fun it was to spoof Pat Robertson (Audio with single cartoon frame) PAM COMMENTARY: As long as we're covering South Park, I should bring up the Pat Robertson angle. (See video of actual show below.) Flashback to Pat Robertson 10: South Park's famous "Starvin' Marvin in Space" episode (Video) PAM COMMENTARY: Let's just make this #10 in the Pat Robertson series from last week. Robertson's habit of frequently begging for money on TV should have been included in that series, as it's his most famous trait (aside from the crazy remarks already covered). This is the entire "Starvin' Marvin in Space" episode from South Park (season 3). Note that it does have a few short commercials both before and during the online video, but they're not too bad. I should warn everyone that while humorous, it has foul language and offensive stereotypes -- as is always the case with South Park. Although the show balances African stereotypes (Ethiopians) with stereotypes of the CIA, TV-dazed white kids growing up in the suburbs, and even Sally Struthers, I should mention a couple of things about Ethiopians that the show got completely wrong. First of all, Ethiopians don't need Christian missionaries. Ethiopia has Coptic Christianity, one of the oldest forms of the religion, and Ethiopia was one of the first Christian nations. In fact, people go to Ethiopia to learn about Christianity, early Christian scrolls have been found there. Now, it's possible that FUNDAMENTALIST Christians might try to get Ethiopians to subscribe to their more recent ideas on religion. Or more likely, this show was also trying to spoof Robertson's exploitation of suffering to endlessly solicit donations, which he then uses for questionable endeavors. (See last week�s links for an example or two of this, although not with Ethiopians.) Also, I'm pretty sure that Ethiopia doesn't have a "clicking" language. African languages with clicking sounds are from the SOUTHERN end of the continent, not eastern, and African clicks don't sound anything like the "kiddie clicks" on South Park. African clicks are more like a "Q" sound with more volume, none of this weak double-noise stuff with the front of the tongue. So that's another crude stereotype -- which may have actually been started (at least in recent TV work) by "Saturday Night Live." I've noticed old episodes of SNL making clicking gibberish while mocking African languages. I guess they think clicks make it funnier, although it looks ignorant to people familiar with the rare and regional nature of clicking languages. And it's unusual for fundamentalist missionaries to go around asking for "sins to confess," confessions are more of a Catholic thing. But crude ethnic stereotypes and foul language are all a part of South Park's charm. Much like the Simpsons, it's a great satire of American culture, and crude bigotry is a part of that culture -- what kids growing up in America sometimes experience. Including it in the show reminds us of America, and allows us to scrutinize and laugh at ourselves (or at least a really bad caricature of ourselves). Anyway, back to why I�m linking to this particular show -- it makes some good points, and is a funny rendition of Pat Robertson�s financial solicitations. (You can find other, non-Robertson, episodes at SouthParkStudios.com.) NASA: Water found in moon crater LOS ANGELES � The moon is wet, say NASA scientists Friday, reporting the results of daring impact probe of lunar polar craters. "There's water, and it is not just a little water, but significant amounts," says NASA's Anthony Colaprete, chief science investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). LCROSS smashed into the Cabeus crater on Oct. 9, with double-barreled impacts. Analysis of the plumes from those 6,000 mile-per-hour hits reveals that about 220 pounds of water � enough to fill "dozens" of two-gallon buckets � pitched skyward after the blast, Colaprete says. Effects of foodborne illness can linger: report Most food-borne illnesses last only a few days, but in some cases, they can have long-term consequences, particularly in children, U.S. researchers say. A study released Thursday by the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention in Grove City, Pa., reviewed the five most common food-borne diseases. It found that while common symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting usually last only a few days, in a small percentage of cases, foodborne pathogens can cause serious, acute and/or life-long complications. Young Mom: Hospital Irradiated My Baby But then they told the Higueras there was something else they needed to know. "They said, 'We made a mistake; we did something we shouldn't have done,' and I was like, 'What do you mean?'" Higuera remembers. "They said 'There's another patient here named Kerry, and you two are the same age. We mixed you up. She was supposed to have the CT scan, not you.' " While no large studies have been done on the effects on the fetus of performing a CT scan to a pregnant woman's abdomen, experts say a fetus exposed to radiation can, in some cases, develop physical and mental growth problems In statement e-mailed to CNN, Bill Byron, senior director for public relations and online services at Banner Health, wrote, "Ms. Higuera is represented by legal counsel in this matter and it appears to be moving towards litigation; therefore, Banner Health is unable to provide any comment at this time." Higuera's lawyer, David Patton of Scottsdale, Arizona, provided CNN with Higuera's records from her visit to Banner Thunderbird. "The patient was unintentionally scanned as she was confused with another patient," reads one report. "There was a misidentification of the patient and inadvertently this patient [Kerry Higuera] had a CAT scan of the abdomen and pelvis performed," reads another report. "[The scan] had been ordered for another patient with a similar first name." Powerful storm blasting East Coast with rain, wind RICHMOND, Va. � Relentless rain drenched much of the Atlantic seaboard Thursday, pelting communities from North Carolina northward with gusty winds and heavy rains, inundating streets and stranding drivers in hard-hit Virginia. The downpours were the continuing aftermath of late-season Tropical Storm Ida, which quickly weakened once it made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday but still soaked a swath from Alabama to Georgia. In Virginia, Gov. Timothy Kaine declared a state of emergency and officials urged people in some areas to stay home. Rain and resulting floods were predicted to continue at least through Friday, especially along the state's southeastern coast. Pfizer drug studies fudged, report says; Studies indicated the drugs worked better than internal documents showed Analysis of a dozen published studies testing possible new uses for a Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often misleading, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company documents showed. According to the report, when a company-funded study�s primary finding wasn�t favorable, that result was usually buried and something else positive was highlighted, without disclosing the switch. The documents used in the review were obtained by lawyers suing Pfizer for refunds on prescriptions paid for by insurers and consumers. The lawyers, who are seeking class action status for the cases, claim Pfizer concealed evidence the epilepsy drug Neurontin didn�t work for those unapproved uses, including nerve pain, migraines and bipolar disorder. PAM COMMENTARY: All too common in the drug industry. The FDA really has to stop taking data provided by drug companies as fact. We need some kind of independent system, although the FDA was supposed to provide a part of that independence, and they're already corrupted enough through job offers to officials from drug companies, etc. Men more likely to leave spouse who has cancer; Divorce rate is 21 percent, compared to 3 percent when husband gets sick A cancer diagnosis can strain any relationship. But when a woman gets news of a life-threatening illness, her husband is six times more likely to leave her than if the tables were turned and the man got the bad news, according to new research. The study included diagnoses of both cancer and multiple sclerosis and found an overall divorce rate of nearly 12 percent, which is similar to that found in the normal population. But when the researchers looked at gender differences, they found the rate was nearly 21 percent when women were the patients compared with about 3 percent when men got the life-threatening diagnosis. The researchers suggest men are less able to commit, on the spot, to being caregivers to a sick partner, while women are better at assuming such home and family responsibilities. "Part of it is a sense of self-preservation," said study researcher Dr. Marc Chamberlain, director of the neuro-oncology program at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). "In men that seems to operate very highly and they don't feel this codependence, this requirement to nurture their significant other who has this life-threatening illness, but rather decide what's best for me is to find an alternative mate and abandon my fatally flawed spouse." Chamberlain is also a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine. PAM COMMENTARY: See flashback below, a famous case of this. . . (FLASHBACK) Gingrich cheated on his wife while assailing Clinton WASHINGTON � Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group. . . . Reports of extramarital affairs have dogged him for years as a result of two messy divorces, but he has refused to discuss them publicly. Gingrich, who frequently campaigned on family-values issues, divorced his second wife, Marianne, in 2000 after his attorneys acknowledged Gingrich's relationship with his current wife, Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide more than 20 years younger than he is. His first marriage, to his former high-school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, ended in divorce in 1981. Although Gingrich has said he doesn't remember it, Battley has said Gingrich discussed divorce terms with her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery. Gingrich married Marianne months after the divorce. "There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them," he said in the interview. Gingrich resigned from Congress after being reprimanded by the House ethics panel over charges that he used tax-exempt funding to advance his political goals. Chimp attack victim reveals face on Oprah; Charla Nash lost her hands, nose, lips and sight when mauled by friend's pet A Connecticut woman who was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee revealed her heavily disfigured face on television Wednesday, saying she is blind and has to eat through a straw, but isn�t angry. �I don�t even think about it,� Charla Nash said on Wednesday�s episode of �The Oprah Winfrey Show.� �And there�s no time for that anyways because I need to heal, you know, not look backwards.� Winfrey removed Nash�s hat and veil to reveal her face, which was swollen and damaged beyond recognition. She had a large scar near the bottom of her face and a large piece of skin where her nose had been. The Feb. 16 attack occurred when the animal�s owner, Sandra Herold, asked Nash, her friend and employee, to help lure the animal back into her house in Stamford, Conn. The chimpanzee ripped off Nash�s hands, nose, lips and eyelids. Police shot and killed the animal. Nash has been hospitalized since. She remains in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. PAM COMMENTARY: Well, that's going to take YEARS of plastic surgery and a few transplants if she can get them. They blame it on the chimp being wild (actually tame but the type of animal unsuitable as a pet). That certainly is a part of it, but can the chimp be solely to blame when the Xanax part of the story is considered (see next article)? Charla Nash attacked by drug addicted chimp? Charla Nash was attacked by a vicious chimpanzee, and appeared on Oprah yesterday, 11-10-09, revealing extremely disturbing wounds. The chimp ripped, or bit off Charla's hands, nose, lips, eyelids, and broke bones in her face, in what must have been an absolutely gruesome experience. She is now blind as well. Live Science reports that the chimp was taking Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication used in humans. Canines given Xanax, or benzodiazepines, have demonstrated increased agression when on the substance. According to rxlist.com, Xanax is meant for the short-term treatment of anxiety disorders, up to 10 weeks. One of its side effects is mania, and other untoward problems. Given to a chimp, there is no telling what may happen. CBS News reported in May 2009 that "Police say toxicology tests showed Travis was drugged with Xanax..." No prescription for the medication was found, and Stamford police Captain Richard Conklin said that, "It looks like third-party Xanax, and certainly it's questionable whether she should have administered it to her pet." These drugs may work in instances of controlled research studies on animals, but when it comes to humans, the outcome may be totally different. Was Travis' owner even qualified to give him medication of this sort? A 200 pound chimp needing Xanax is about as big a red flag as you can get. Primates are extremely powerful beasts, and a 200 pound chimp could give Mike Tyson a run for the belt. Chimpanzees have a life span in wild of 30 to 40 years, in captivity longer. Males weigh an average of 198 pounds and females 176. These primates have the strength of 6 to 7 men when reaching approximately 160 pounds. And as seen with the attack on Charla Nash, these animals can be very dangerous. Overdraft Fees Require Customer Consent, Says The Federal Reserve WASHINGTON � Banks will have to secure their customers' consent before charging large overdraft fees on ATM and debit card transactions, according to a new rule announced Thursday by the Federal Reserve. The rule responds to complaints from consumer groups, members of Congress and other regulators that the overdraft fees are unfair because many people assume they can't spend more on a debit card than is available in their account. Instead, many banks allow the transactions to go through, then charge fees of up to $25 to $35. For small purchases, such as a cup of coffee, the penalty can far exceed the actual cost of the transaction. PAM COMMENTARY: Despite the good intentions of this bill, I foresee banks just adding that language to the customer agreement that people sign when they open the account. I have yet to find an honest bank, by the way. 9/11's delayed legacy: cancer for many of the rescue workers; A spate of cancer-related illnesses among New York's rescue services who worked at Ground Zero sparks fear of an epidemic A spate of recent deaths of New York police and fire officers who took part in the emergency operation at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks has heightened fears that it could be the start of a delayed epidemic of cancer-related illness. Five firefighters and police officers, all of whom were involved in the rescue and clear-up at the site of the collapsed Twin Towers, have died of cancer in the past three months, the oldest being 44. Three died last month within a four-day period. PAM COMMENTARY: It's much worse than this article is telling you -- it's been known for a long time that 9/11 rescuers have been sick and dying from cancer and especially lung problems. Asbestos at the WTC and the structure turning to dust from the implosion is assumed to be to blame. UN investigator accuses US of shameful neglect of homeless; UN special rapporteur says wealthy US ignoring deepening homeless crisis while pumping billions into bank rescues A United Nations special investigator who was blocked from visiting the US by the Bush administration has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business while treating as "invisible" a deepening homeless crisis. Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour of America, said it was shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing. "The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US," she said. "I learned through this visit that real affordable housing and poverty is something that hasn't been dealt with as an issue. Even if we talk about the financial crisis and government stepping in in order to promote economic recovery, there is no such help for the homeless." She added: "I think those who are suffering the most in this whole situation are the very poor, the low-income population. The burden is disproportionately on them and it's of course disproportionately on African-Americans, on Latinos and immigrant communities, and on Native Americans." Rolnik toured Chicago, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Wilkes-Barre, a Pennsylvania town where this year the first four sheriff sales � public auctions of seized property � in the county included 598 foreclosed properties. She also visited a Native American reservation. The US government does not tally the numbers but interested organisations say that more than 3 million people were homeless at some point over the past year. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families with children, often single parents. On any given night in Los Angeles, about 17,000 parents and children are homeless. Most will be found a place in a shelter but many single men and women are forced to sleep on the streets. Los Angeles, which is described as the homeless capital of America, has endured an 18-fold increase in housing foreclosures. Evictions from owned and rented homes have risen about tenfold, with 62,400 people forced out last year in Los Angeles county. The hard reality behind Mexico's bitter abortion debate "We receive girls we refer to as adult teenagers," says Roxana D'Escobar L�-Arellano who runs the shelter in Aguascalientes. "They are girls who become mothers at 13, 14 and 15 years of age, something we did not see five or 10 years ago." According to D'Escobar, her shelter helps about two child mothers each month. "They are completely defenceless. They haven't finished school, they are not qualified to work or prepared to raise children. They are girls playing with their own children." So far this year, the state-run health institute in Aguascalientes has registered 213 births to young women under 15, including 21 to girls under 13. It is an increase from previous years and part of a nationwide trend that has seen the number rise steadily to 11,530 cases in 2008, a 35 per cent increase from the mid-1980s when statistics were first kept. Pro-choice and anti-abortion demonstrators in Mexico City argue in 2007 at the outset of the country's growing abortion debate. (Reuters) It is also part of the fuel that is re-igniting Mexico's divisive debate over abortion, a polarizing issue that took centre stage two years ago when Mexico City's leftist lawmakers legalized it � but only in the capital. Va. teen suffers rare illness after swine flu shot; Boy diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, but CDC says no clear link A 14-year-old Virginia boy is weak and struggling to walk after coming down with a reported case of Guillain-Barre syndrome within hours after receiving the H1N1 vaccine for swine flu. Jordan McFarland, a high school athlete from Alexandria, Va., left Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children Tuesday night in a wheelchair nearly a week after developing severe headaches, muscle spasms and weakness in his legs following a swine flu shot. He will likely need the assistance of a walker for four to six weeks, plus extensive physical therapy. "The doctor said I'll recover fully, but it's going to take some time," the teenager said. Jordan is among the first people in the nation to report developing the potentially life-threatening muscle disorder after receiving the H1N1 vaccine this fall. His alarming reaction was submitted via msnbc.com's reader reporting tool, First Person, by his stepmother, Arlene Connin. Increased cases of GBS were found in patients who received a 1976 swine flu vaccine, but government health officials say they've seen no rise in the condition associated with the current outbreak. PAM COMMENTARY: Sounds like the same problem from the 70s swine flu vaccine -- and from today's HPV vaccine. Look for the flashback videos to follow. Do you know WHY the CDC always says there's "no clear link?" Guess who's responsible for the vaccine program! (FLASHBACK) 1976 Swine Flu Vaccine and GBS - 1 of 2 (FLASHBACK) 1976 Swine Flu Vaccine and GBS - 2 of 2 PAM COMMENTARY: How the LAST swine flu vaccine program crippled and killed people. Sexual Assaults, Inadequate Healthcare Among Spate of Issues Facing Women Servicemembers [DN] AMY GOODMAN: And here at home, the whole�the figures that I just laid out about what happens to women in the military, the level of assault, I mean, that is just astounding. Lay out what the figures are. ANURADHA BHAGWATI: Right, it is astounding. Approximately one in three women are sexually assaulted. And I would say virtually every woman experiences some form of sexual harassment in the military. I think it's underreported, in part because women themselves are so ingrained and indoctrinated to sort of cope in an all-male environment, which is, on a daily basis, extremely abusive, whether that's verbally or physically, that, you know, in order to survive, say, a four-year tour in the military, you do have to put on a suit of armor that allows you to simply get by from day to day, you know, dealing with kind of the systemic, you know, verbal harassment, you know, pornography in the barracks, this type of thing. And so, you know, that kind of trauma that results from, again, several years of what's likely verbal harassment and quite possibly sexual assault can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, anxiety disorder, all of which are extremely debilitating conditions. So women who are coming out of the military, whether or not they've actually been in combat, been deployed overseas, are likely to suffer from various sorts of trauma. And, you know, any time a soldier experiences trauma, they're more likely to need help from an institution or a nonprofit coming out. And the VA is completely�the Department of Veterans Affairs is completely overwhelmed, with veterans, in general, but again, they weren't prepared for this surge of women veterans coming back from these two conflicts, you know, that they are under-resourced in terms of female counselors, female mental health professionals, female physicians. And for women who have experienced trauma, it is often necessary that they be treated by female health professionals. You know, to walk into a VA hospital having been sexually harassed or sexually assaulted, it can be a nightmare for a woman veteran. You know, she is likely to not come back at all. AMY GOODMAN: Why a nightmare? ANURADHA BHAGWATI: Well, it�s an all-male environment, which women veterans are used to, but a lot of the patients can harass, you know, their fellow women patients. The staff members�you know, depending on what hospital you go into, because some VA hospitals are�do treat women fairly well. The ones that I�ve been to do not treat women well. It�s really hit or miss. So you�re sort of�you�re taking a risk by using VA facilities if you�re a woman. You know, if you have a child, there�s no guarantee of childcare. You may have to travel several hours to reach a VA hospital. But, you know, if the staff themselves are not trained in what military sexual trauma is, what the ramifications and consequences of sexual trauma is, what that looks like, the likelihood of having experienced it if you�re a woman in the military, you know, you�re really subjecting a woman to the high possibility of further trauma. Study: Over 2,200 US Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance [DN] DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER: Well, the risk of dying is actually elevated by about 40 percent among people who have no health insurance, and there�s just under 1.5 million uninsured veterans nationally. So applying those odds to those folks, it turns out that there�s almost 2,300 folks who die�veterans who die every year due to lack of health insurance. Many of these folks, these veterans, would not be helped under the bills before the House and Senate, because they�ll be too affluent to qualify for Medicare. If they get subsidies at all�for Medicaid. If they get subsidies at all, the subsidies will be too small to make health insurance affordable. And they�re mostly working families, folks who don�t have the money to buy private insurance, but they have too much money to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA benefits. AMY GOODMAN: I think people would be very surprised to know that once you�re a vet, no matter what your income level, you�re not covered by VA healthcare system for the rest of your life. DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER: Oh, well, that�s been true for a long time. The VA will cover you if you have a service-connected injury, like you get your leg shot off. They do provide a safety net for people with very low incomes, eligible for Medicaid, or slightly higher incomes. However, many middle-income vets are not eligible for VA care, and that�s who these uninsured veterans are. And sadly, many of them will continue to be uninsured under the House or Senate bills, which, even if they work as planned, will leave somewhere between a third and a half of all uninsured people still uninsured in the year 2020. 100 rapists are let off with a caution: The serious offences that never come to court (UK) [R] More than 100 rapists have been let off with a police caution, it was revealed yesterday. The 111 cases included 66 incidents of child rape. The extent to which police forces have handed cautions to rapists, whose crime carries a maximum sentence of life in jail, was made public as Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced a full-scale review of the system of punishing crime with cautions and on-the-spot fines. Mr Straw acted after a weekend when senior police chiefs and the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC called for curbs on the use of out-of-court punishments. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson also condemned the 'uncontrollable increase in cautions' and said that on-the-spot fines, now often used to punish offences such as shoplifting, 'in the public's minds equate to a parking ticket.' The system of fixed-penalty fines and cautions has been introduced over the past six years as a way to deal with minor crime cheaply and effectively. But the disclosure that cautions have been used repeatedly to deal with rapists is the clearest demonstration that the system is now being used to keep the most serious crimes out of the courts. PAM COMMENTARY: I'd like to think it was better here in the US, but you're lucky when cops will even take a police report from rape victims, much less do a rape kit. Desiree Jennings Experiences Amazing Recovery with Nature-based Therapies [R] Desiree Jennings is the 26 year old cheerleader and marathon runner was who severely crippled with a neurological disorder diagnosed as dystonia in the wake of taking the Wonderful Swine Flu vaccine (that government officials and pharmaceutical shills keep telling us is "safe"). Don Nicoloff mentioned to me on the phone tonight that he heard an audio clip from a radio show in which Dr Rashid Buttar of Huntersville, North Carolina, the physician who helped Desiree detoxify her body of the POISONS given to her when she got vaccinated with the saving Swine flu vaccine, explain how he applied intravenous solutions including chelating agents, anti-oxidants, nutritional support, and NATURE-BASED anti-viral compounds over a period of 36 hours which resulted in a stunning and amazing turnaround for Desiree from the seizures she was experiencing nearly EVERY MINUTE, with no ability to talk, and unable to breathe for 10 or 15 second intervals when first carried into his clinic. Why Lieberman Blocks a Public Option [BF] That means the current legislation with a weak public option is a win-win-win for the insurance industry. It�s most lucrative market � large employers providing group benefits for employees � would be protected from competition from the public option; the surviving public option for individuals and small businesses would be barred from achieving savings by tying payments to Medicare rates; and the public option thus would get stuck charging higher premiums than private insurers because it would end up with the sickest part of the population, the CBO says. So, from the perspective of an insurance executive, what�s not to like? One obvious concern for private insurers would be that after the public option becomes available in 2013 through the insurance exchanges, Congress might be pressured by dissatisfied Americans to expand it into a real alternative to the harsh, profit-making practices of the insurance industry. That is called the �camel�s nose under the tent� theory. Yet, while it�s hard to predict the future, it seems equally plausible that the industry would be worse off if it succeeds in eliminating the public option or killing health-care reform outright. As the U.S. health-care crisis worsens, private insurers and their political defenders could be blamed � and a more radical change might become possible. That is the view of some progressives, such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who believe the House-passed bill is so thoroughly compromised that it makes more sense to vote it down and start over, seeking either a �robust� public option tied to Medicare rates or a full-scale single-payer system that could prove the death knell for the insurance industry. Missing U.S. soldier's body found in Afghan river KABUL -- A U.S. military dive team has discovered the submerged body of one of two American soldiers who went missing last week in a river in western Afghanistan. The soldier, who has not been identified, was found Tuesday in the river in Baghdis province, according to U.S. military officials. He and a second soldier, both paratroopers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, went missing while their unit was searching the river in an effort to recover airdropped supplies. Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Awake, Talking [R] Investigators had no indication Maj. Hasan "as planning any attack," a senior federal investigator said Monday. Despite the contacts, the Fort Hood attack isn't classified as an act of terrorism, the official said. In part because of that, Defense and Justice department officials decided Monday that Maj. Hasan will be charged in military rather than civilian court. "We don't have any indication he was directed. We don't have any indication he had co-conspirators," the senior investigator said. Separately, hospital officials at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio said that Maj. Hasan has been awake and talking since Saturday, when his ventilator was removed. Army investigators leading the Fort Hood probe tried to interview him Sunday but he invoked his right to an attorney, officials said. PAM COMMENTARY: This page loads really slowly, and then takes extra time to navigate -- the bonus that comes with Rupert Murdoch ownership of the Wall Street Journal. (Is it from all the ads? Bad programming? Or is he just spying on you? With Rupert Murdoch, it's probably ALL OF THE ABOVE.) The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower [WRH] Leonids are bits of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every 33 years the comet visits the inner solar system and leaves a stream of dusty debris in its wake. Many of these streams have drifted across the November portion of Earth's orbit. Whenever we hit one, meteors come flying out of the constellation Leo. "We can predict when Earth will cross a debris stream with pretty good accuracy," says Cooke. "The intensity of the display is less certain, though, because we don't know how much debris is in each stream." Caveat observer! The first stream crossing on Nov. 17th comes around 0900 UT (4 a.m. EST, 1 a.m. PST). The debris is a diffuse mix of particles from several old streams that should produce a gentle display of two to three dozen meteors per hour over North America. Dark skies are recommended for full effect. "A remarkable feature of this year's shower is that Leonids will appear to be shooting almost directly out of the planet Mars," notes Cooke. It's just a coincidence. This year, Mars happens to be passing by the Leonid radiant at the time of the shower. The Red Planet is almost twice as bright as a first magnitude star, so it makes an eye-catching companion for the Leonids: sky map. The next stream crossing straddles the hour 2100-2200 UT, shortly before dawn in Indonesia and China. At that time, Earth will pass through a pair of streams laid down by Comet Tempel-Tuttle in 1466 and 1533 AD. The double crossing could yield as many as 300 Leonids per hour. "Even if rates are only half that number, it would still be one of the best showers of the year," says Cooke. The Leonids are famous for storming, most recently in 1999-2002 when deep crossings of Tempel-Tuttle's debris streams produced outbursts of more than 1000 meteors per hour. The Leonids of 2009 won't be like that, but it only takes one bright Leonid streaking past Mars to make the night worthwhile. PAM COMMENTARY: Back in 2001, I was setting up my payroll/invoicing database for the Chicago office, and had rented a tiny little house in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. I'd heard about the Leonoid shower on an NPR radio station in Wisconsin -- how an astronomy group was going to gather in Madison on the lawn of a big park there and enjoy the show. They were telling us that for our part of the country, it would be so many years until the next Leonoid shower was that good -- we'd better come out for THIS year's shower or run the risk of not seeing another like it. Well, I wake up in the middle of the night, expecting a 2-hour drive to Madison to get in on the party. FOG EVERYWHERE. I spent the morning on Weather.com, trying to find one corner of Wisconsin or Illinois (actually closer to me in Pleasant Prairie, a northern CHICAGO suburb on the border of Illinois), and finally found that Green Bay and Green Bay only wasn't showing fog. Even through the fog, streaks of mostly yellow light were falling all around my car as I drove to Green Bay. Surprisingly, none seemed to hit my car or the ground, even though they were coming in all around me, and I ducked a couple of times when it seemed one was heading into the windshield. After I finally got to Green Bay, I saw ONE streak over an old farm house, and maybe another from a gas station. Then dawn hit and that was the end of it. But I still remember that magical drive to this day. Vaccine Victim Desiree Jennings Viciously Attacked By Medical Establishment [AJ] Former Redskins cheerleader Desiree Jennings, the woman who suffered a paralyzing neurological disorder after taking a flu shot, has come under ceaseless attack from the medical establishment as well as websites acting as apologists for the pharmaceutical industry, who claim that her entire illness is a hoax despite the fact that her condition has been confirmed as genuine by numerous doctors. The inserts on flu vaccines clearly state that side-effects can include nervous system disorders, many which are treatable, but pro-vaccine cheerleaders are claiming the Jennings story is a hoax because she has made progress in recovering from her illness. The only hoax here is the one being peddled by these mouthpieces for the medical establishment, who are trying to deny the manfestly provable fact that neurological disorders are a potential side-effect of vaccines. Jennings was a fit and healthy cheerleader up until August when she got a seasonal flu shot. Ten days after the shot she began experiencing flu like symptoms, followed by severe convulsions and black outs. After seeing around 60 doctors, Jennings was eventually diagnosed with dystonia, a paralyzing neurological disorder that causes the muscles to relentlessly contract and spasm, causing extreme difficulties with walking, talking and general body movements. Despite the fact that doctors who vigorously examined her condition at both Fairfax Inova and Johns Hopkins confirmed that she was suffering from dystonia, and that the cause of the illness was her reaction to the flu shot, numerous apologists for big pharma have ludicrously claimed that her story is a hoax and that her disease is imaginary, citing no evidence whatsoever and having had no contact with Jennings at all. The chief culprit in erroneously circulating rumors that Jennings� condition was a �hoax� has to be �The Inquisitr� website, a tabloid gossip rag that in-between obsessing about the vacuous activities of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, also thinks it has the knowledge to dismiss medical conditions by watching You Tube videos. On October 22, the website carried the headline, Cheerleader Flu Shot Girl: Hoax or Real? The story mentions that Jennings� condition had been diagnosed by several doctors as genuine, yet still implies that the story is a �hoax,� citing no proof whatsoever. The agenda behind this becomes clear when the website lambastes �anti-vaccination nutters� for merely highlighting the case. Not content with savaging a young woman whose life was almost destroyed just once, The Inquisitr went back for a second helping, with a story on Monday claiming that Jennings is now �cured� and that, �The chances of the whole thing being a hoax just went from about 50% to pushing towards 100%.� This time around, the website didn�t even bother to mention the fact that numerous doctors at major medical establishments had personally diagnosed Jennings with neurological problems, instead they claimed that Jennings had merely �told the media� that she had the disease. In addition, the claim that Jennings is �cured� is another contrivance. The latest footage of Desiree shows her in a chair hooked up to a drip. Jennings has made progress as a result of treatment provided by doctors in LA with the aid of Generation Rescue, the charity that helped Jenny McCarthy�s son recover from autism after a vaccine, but she is far from �cured�. PAM COMMENTARY: She may feel better on some days more than others, that's typical of any long-term illness. She's probably eating better on those days, has more energy to deal with it. And anyway, there are lots of people who recover from conditions that mainstream medicine calls "incurable" or "terminal." It's what they call ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE. Here's an old story that I still don't have time to cover properly in an article -- how I recovered from the '98 auto accident. I was sideswiped in my little car by a kid driving a big SUV -- he was speeding and trying to pass over double yellows. It took about 19 months before I was well enough to hold down a job again. But one of my worst symptoms was horrible back spasms, the exact diagnosis was "myofascitis." (If mainstream medicine did one good thing for me, it was give me an accurate diagnosis. When they proved useless for the condition, at least I was able to research it and eventually fix the problem on my own.) I could write a full-length article on that ordeal alone, and I'm not saying that what worked for me would also work for the lady mentioned above, whose injuries were due to a vaccine and not accident trauma. An $8 bottle of valerian root capsules finally rescued me from my accident-related back spasms. It was only one piece of what got me back to work, but it was a big piece. Now, if my spasms had been from vaccines, I'd be looking at eliminating whatever came from the vaccine to cause the spasms, like pathogens (I'd use a zapper for those) or heavy metals (I'd think chelation would be the only thing strong enough to get them out of the nervous system). Then I'd go from there. But that's just me -- I'm not telling anyone what to do with themselves here. Whenever you hear about natural cures like this, by all means DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. It's also important to find out whether the person promoting the product benefits financially from sales of that product. (I don't, just sell my cookbook with healthy vegan food here, no herbal products or zappers.) Which brings me to another story about financial interests . . . Conflicts of interest? Dr. Mehmet Oz owns 150,000 option shares in vaccine technology company [WRH] (NaturalNews) Dr. Mehmet Oz is a huge promoter of vaccines. He's been on television reinforcing fear about H1N1 swine flu and telling everyone to get vaccinated. But what he didn't tell his viewing audience is that he holds 150,000 option shares in a vaccine company that could earn him millions of dollars in profits as the stock price rises. It is in Dr. Oz's own financial interest, in other words, to hype up vaccines and get more people taking them so that his own financial investments rise in value. Evidence describing these facts was delivered to NaturalNews by a private investigator named Joseph Culligan (http://webofdeception.com/oprah.html#oz). That evidence includes an SEC document detailing how Dr. Oz. bought options on stocks for SIGA Technologies in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. SIGA Technologies (stock symbol SIGA) is a vaccine technology company with many advanced developments whose success depends on the widespread adoption of vaccines. According to SEC documents, Dr. Mehmet Oz. currently holds 150,000 option shares on SIGA Technologies, purchased for as little as $1.35 back in 2005. At the time of this writing, SIGA Technologies is trading at $7.10, making those options bought in 2005 worth $5.75 in profits today. If all the 150,000 options purchased by Dr. Oz. were exercised today, they would be worth roughly $180,000 in profits (they were bought at different prices, not all at $1.35). This is all revealed in what the SEC website calls an "insider transaction" document (link below). High BPA levels linked to male sexual problems; Study in China is likely to bring further scrutiny of the common chemical Exposure to high levels of a controversial chemical found in thousands of everyday plastic products appears to cause erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems in men, according to a new study published Wednesday. The study, funded by the federal government and published in the journal Human Reproduction, is the first to examine the impact of bisphenol A, or BPA, on the reproductive systems of human males. Previous studies have involved mice or rats. The research comes as government agencies debate the safety of BPA, a compound that is found in thousands of consumer products ranging from dental sealants to canned food linings and that is so ubiquitous it has been detected in the urine of 93 percent of the U.S. population. Researchers focused on 634 male workers at four factories in China who were exposed to elevated levels of BPA. They followed the men over five years and compared their sexual health with that of male workers in other Chinese factories where BPA was not present. The men handling BPA were four times as likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction and seven times as likely to have difficulty with ejaculation, said De-Kun Li, a scientist at the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, which conducted the study with funds from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. BPA, which was developed in the 1930s as a synthetic version of estrogen, appears to throw off the hormonal balance in the human body, Li said. The workers studied did not have to spend years in the factory to develop problems -- sexual dysfunction began in new workers after just months on the job, Li said. Muhammad executed for sniper killing "There is a certain bit of closure, but you never get full closure," Meyers said. "I think it was justice." Muhammad's attorney, Jon Sheldon, who met with the sniper Tuesday and also witnessed the execution, said Muhammad did not want to take part in the rituals of the death penalty. "He had no interest in those things," Sheldon said, explaining why Muhammad did not speak and declined to make public his final meal. Sheldon said Muhammad visited with one of his sons and remained convinced that the prosecution was a racist plot against him. But the lawyers steered conversation to other topics. Hoodwinked: Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded -- and How to Remake Them [DN] AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins, you have an interesting theory about what happened in Honduras, the coup that just took place there. What do you think? JOHN PERKINS: Well, I don't think it's a theory. You know, I think it's -- I was in Panama at the time that the coup took place. And, you know, the democratic -- AMY GOODMAN: In June. JOHN PERKINS: Yeah. The democratically elected president, Zelaya, had called for a new constitution to replace the old one that was really set up by the oligarchy in favor of the very, very, very wealthy and the international companies. He also called for a 60 percent increase in the bottom wage rate, which had a huge impact on Dole and Chiquita, two of the biggest employers in that company. They, along with a number of companies that have sweatshops in Honduras, strongly objected, very much the same way that they had objected to Aristide in Haiti, when he did something similar, and called in the military. The general in charge of the military was a graduate of our School of the Americas, this, you know, school that's famous for creating dictators, and they overthrew Zelaya. It was a classic CIA-sponsored type of coup, very similar to what United Fruit had done in Guatemala in the early '50s. And, of course, United Fruit became Chiquita. So you had this -- you know, this strong relationship and got rid of this democratically elected president, because he was drawing a line in the sand. We had seen ten countries in Latin America bring in new presidents who are instituting very significant reforms in favor of the people, in favor of using local resources to help the people pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and I think the corporatocracy decided to draw a line in the sand in Honduras. AMY GOODMAN: Iran and the swirling clouds? JOHN PERKINS: You know, I think Iran today -- Iran is this example of where we went in and overthrew a democratically elected president, Mosaddeq, in the early '50s, and we've seen terrible blowback from that ever since. It�s, you know, not only in Iran, but it impacted the whole Middle East. If we had supported that president, who simply wanted to use more of his oil money, his country's oil money, to help the poor people -- we strongly objected. We overthrew him in a coup and replaced him with the Shah. So we�ve seen the blowback that comes out of that. And this has led to this situation that we�re in today. And the swirling clouds, to me, are the big corporations. So, in the past, you had roughly 200 countries on the planet, which a few had a lot of power -- the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States. But today the geopolitics might better be envisioned as the same roughly 200 countries with these huge swirling clouds that are the big corporations. And they are really calling the shots all over the planet. They know no national boundaries. They don�t listen to any specific set of laws. They strike deals with the Chinese and the Taiwanese and the Tibetans and the Israelis and the Arab nations. Whoever has the markets or the resources, they cut deal with -- deals with. And as we�ve seen in our most recent election here in the United States, we bring in a president who is very diametrically different from the former president, and yet the corporations are still calling the shots. Which takes us back, Amy, to the fact that we, the people, must create the change. This has always been the case. And this is a clarion call for us at this point now in history, that we must get out there. We�ve got to get behind Obama and all the other politicians. We�ve got to force the corporations to change their goal, get away from this goal of maximizing profits regardless of social and environmental costs, and instead say, �Yeah, it�s OK. Make profits, but only within a context of creating a sustainable, just and peaceful world,� only within the context of creating a world that my grandson will want to inherit, and that means every child on the planet will want to inherit it, because I think it�s really important that we understand today we cannot have homeland security unless we understand that the whole planet is our homeland. Our homeland is now no longer defined by the Rio Grande and the Canadian border. It is�we are one�one human species living on a very fragile planet. PAM COMMENTARY: I take offense when people say "we" did a coup against a country, or "we" did anything that criminals in our government actually did for their own personal interests. This was fashionable back when GEORGE W. BUSH was lying to the people to get them to back outrageous wars in Afghanistan and Iran. Everyone said that "we" invaded Iraq, "we" invaded Afghanistan. Some 9/11 truthers would even say "we" did 9/11, meaning that covert ops in the government did 9/11. No, BUSH is responsible for those wars, for 9/11 -- not ME or WE. In fact, WE went out and protested the Iraq war with MASSIVE DEMOSTRATIONS, even in advance of it happening. (ME even went out and took pictures of the big 2004 protest in NYC, and posted those pictures on this web site.) Don't include ME in that bundle of liars and oil whores. Most Americans don't even know this stuff is going on, and have no power to stop it, other than voting for one of two parties that rarely offer a real choice. Americans are usually too busy trying to make a meager living, maybe getting an hour of drug- and defense-industry filtered TV news in the evening. Now this guest is referring to the CIA as "WE," saying that WE invaded Iran and overthrew Mossadegh. Hey, I hadn't even been born yet when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh. In fact, the CIA had just formed a few years prior to that coup, called Operagion AJAX or TPAJAX. They bragged about it, was the first time they'd overthrown a government. Of course, their darling the Shah was a brutal dictator, and blowback from their precious operation was Iranian seizure of US hostages in 1979. (Oh yeah, they don't tell you the part about Iranians having a legitimate grievance against the US when they took those hostages, or how the CIA's Shah had done unspeakable crimes to the country for decades beforehand. Taking a few hostages was just a sissy-punch in comparison.) So don't go calling the CIA "WE." Almost nobody in this country works for the CIA, people who work for the CIA often aren't involved in its most heinous operations, and they certainly don't represent any interests but their own and those of their bosses (corrupt politicians, although historically Kissinger seems to be involved a good percentage of the time). It's THEY all the way on this one -- THEY did the coups, THEY break the laws, THEY are responsible for all of the deaths and suffering that THEY caused and are causing right as I write this. Leave WE out of it. Kaine denies sniper clemency; Muhammad to die tonight Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) denied clemency for John Allen Muhammad on Tuesday, clearing the way for the sniper to be executed by lethal injection at 9 p.m. and putting an end to one of the most trying local criminal cases in U.S. history. Muhammad, 48, was convicted of capital murder in the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers on Oct. 9, 2002, at a gas station outside of Manassas, part of a spree that left 10 people dead in the Washington area and included shootings in several other states. A jury in Virginia Beach, where the trial was moved to get an impartial panel, sentenced Muhammad to death nearly six years ago. Kaine issued a brief statement about noon Tuesday, shutting the door on Muhammad's last hope. "Muhammad's trial, verdict, and sentence have been reviewed by state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of Virginia, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court," Kaine said in his statement. "Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts. Accordingly, I decline to intervene." Muhammad's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, was convicted of capital murder for a separate killing in Fairfax County and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Malvo has agreed not to appeal and is serving the sentence in Virginia. All of Muhammad's legal appeals and options ran out Monday, when the Supreme Court declined to hear his final petition for a stay. Muhammad's last hope for avoiding Virginia's lethal injection rested with Kaine. Despite his religious objections to the death penalty, Kaine, a devout Catholic, generally has allowed executions to proceed. Lawyers representing Muhammad have said that the sniper maintains his innocence. The lawyers have argued that Muhammad was not mentally competent to stand trial or to defend himself in court, as he chose to do at the beginning of his case. The courts at all levels have disagreed. Muhammad will face lethal injection at Virginia's Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, south of Richmond. He will have the opportunity to speak briefly, and members of victims' families and of the law enforcement task force that investigated and prosecuted the case will be on hand to witness his death. Paterson launches early campaign ads (CNN) - In what may be an effort to quiet speculation he will drop his bid for a full term, embattled New York Gov. David Paterson is hitting the airwaves with a major ad buy intended to reintroduce himself to voters. Just under a year before Election Day, the New York Democrat is going up with two ads statewide that highlight his unique biography and address his critics head on. "Some say I shouldn't be running for governor," Paterson says in one of the ads, called 'Some say.' "It might have been easier if all I thought about was running for governor. But I think it's more important to do what's right for the people of New York." The second ad, called "When," notes the governor's blindness and the lessons he has learned from both his successes and failures throughout life. PAM COMMENTARY: Yay! Governor Paterson! You'll never get anyone that honest or that good to come in on TOP of the ticket. He avoided all of that soul-selling by slipping in under the #2 job first. Eliot Spitzer (not exact words, just the gist of it): Oh boo hoo, I cheated on my wife, and am SO SORRY. Really I am, it was a total fluke for me to use a prostitute at all, ever. I need to step down and work on my family life, hope you'll all forgive me when I run for office again in the future. . . Paterson (not exact words again, but you knew that): It's too bad Governor Spitzer had to step down. My wife and I both cheated on each other during a difficult time in our marriage, but we decided to get back together. Also I've used illegal drugs, but quit that habit eventually, too. So let's get down to what I was actually hired to do, run the state of New York. . . Three more government drug advisers resign (UK) The scientists in particular wanted assurances their reports and recommendations would in future be taken seriously, and sought an agreement over how their advice was handled by ministers. "The home secretary emphasised the value he placed on ACMD's advice, the important contribution the ACMD had made to the government drug's policy in the past and how he expected it to continue to do so in the future," the statement said. "The ACMD summarised their concerns regarding how their advice is received by the Home Office and over the dismissal of Professor Nutt." Nutt, a pharmacologist at Bristol University and Imperial College London, was sacked last month after criticising the government's decision to upgrade the legal classification of cannabis, arguing that it was less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes. Johnson said that Nutt had "crossed a line" into politics with remarks that amounted to "lobbying against government policy". Dr Les King, the former head of the drugs intelligence unit of the Forensic Science Service, and Marion Walker, the clinical director of Berkshire Healthcare NHS foundation trust's substance misuse service, resigned in the immediate aftermath of Nutt's sacking. Dems move to shift power from the Fed to regulatory agencies WASHINGTON � Senate Democrats on Tuesday proposed stripping the Federal Reserve of its supervisory powers and creating instead three new federal agencies to police banks, protect consumers and dismantle failing institutions. The 1,136-page bill, released by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, would represent a significant shift in power in federal oversight of the U.S. market. The Fed has been a dominate figure in managing the economy, although many lawmakers blame the central bank for not doing enough to prevent last year's crisis. "We saw over the last number of years when (the Fed) took on consumer protection responsibilities and the regulation of bank holding companies, it was an abysmal failure," said Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. Dodd's proposal prompted cheers from consumer advocates and other Democrats, including Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., an influential moderate who said swift action was necessary to prevent future government bailouts of big banks. "Never again should the American taxpayers have to hear about 'too big to fail,' where the American taxpayer has to pick up the slack," Warner said. Does Biased News Have a 'Time Bomb' Effect? [BF] Yet new research out of the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that even the most hardened Europeans may succumb to media manipulation and change their political views if they are bombarded long enough with biased news. Michael Bruter, a senior lecturer in European politics at the school, fed a steady diet of slanted newsletters about Europe and the European Union � either all good news or all bad � to 1,200 citizens of six countries over two years. Over time, Bruter found, and without exception, the readers subconsciously adopted the bias to varying degrees and changed their view of the EU and of themselves as Europeans, a few of them in the extreme. Surprisingly, they didn't register any change right after the newsletters stopped � not until full six months later, when they had obviously let down their guard. Bruter calls this the "time bomb" effect of one-sided news. His study paints a blunt picture of how cynicism, far from inoculating citizens to resist political persuasion, merely delays the impact. Reid Challenger Feels Backlash After Questioning Assassination Attempt [BF] The former chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party had emerged from the GOP pack of little-known Reid challengers to become the front-runner after a poll in late summer showed her leading Reid by 45 percent to 40 percent, with 15 percent undecided. But Lowden's boomlet burst when she appeared recently on a conservative radio talk show and snickered about the veracity of a 1981 incident in which a bomb was found under the Reid family's station wagon. At the time of the botched bombing attempt, Reid was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and Lowden was a news reporter at KLAS TV -- the local CBS affiliate in Las Vegas. Claiming she could not recall that an explosive device had been placed under Reid's car brought widespread ridicule from Nevada journalists familiar with Lowden's background and career. How could she not remember? It was news, for cryin' out loud," wrote Jane Ann Morrison in the Las Vegas Review Journal. "She was a Las Vegas television reporter in 1981 when it happened. Over the years, it was resurrected repeatedly in profiles of Reid's career. When the movie 'Casino' came out in 1995, the bombing attempt was news again. Reid himself wrote about it vividly in his book, 'The Good Fight.'" Not only was she a reporter, Lowden also had been dating Ned Day -- the city's preeminent investigative reporter who was covering the bloody mob war dominating Las Vegas at the time and whose own car was torched. She went on to marry Paul Lowden -- a Strip horn player who managed to become the owner of the legendary Sahara Hotel. "If you think exploding cars are so funny, ask your husband about the time [Frank "Lefty"] Rosenthal's Cadillac exploded. That rib-tickler nearly killed old Lefty, but he lived long enough to see Martin Scorsese turn his life story into 'Casino,' " wrote Las Vegas columnist John L. Smith. Ex-astronaut pleads guilty in attacking woman; Nowak strikes deal to avoid trial and attempted kidnapping charge ORLANDO, Fla. - A former astronaut pleaded guilty Tuesday to attacking a romantic rival after driving 1,000 miles from Houston to Orlando and was sentenced to a year on probation. Lisa Nowak, a Navy captain, pleaded guilty to felony burglary and misdemeanor battery. She originally had been charged with two felonies � attempted kidnapping and burglary � along with misdemeanor battery. She could have faced up to life in prison under the attempted kidnapping charge. Nowak confronted her romantic rival, Colleen Shipman, in the parking lot of Orlando International Airport in February 2007 after driving from Houston. Shipman had begun dating Nowak�s love interest, former space shuttle pilot Bill Oefelein. The role of Vitamin D in complications from pneumonia [WRH] Vitamin D has been in the news often lately, as researchers tease out its relationship to Type 1 diabetes, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and some autoimmune diseases. Now it appears that Vitamin D may have played a role in the virulence of the 1918 flu epidemic. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal �Dermato-Endocrinology� explores why pneumonia, as a complication of the flu, struck many fewer people in southern US cities than those farther north. The authors of the article found an association between UVB irradiance and case-fatality rate (CFR) in the twelve regions studied by the United States Public Health Service in 1919. Vitamin D is made in the body when oils in the skin interact with UVB radiation from the sun (and some newer types of tanning beds). The authors noted that �The lowest case-fatality rates occurred in the area with the highest solar UVB irradiance and lowest latitude, San Antonio TX, while the highest rates were in New London CT, which had the lowest UVB irradiance and highest latitude. The lowest rates of pneumonia as a complication of influenza were in Spartanburg SC and San Antonio, the two areas at the lowest latitudes.� CVS pays $875,000 for selling expired food and medicine ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) � New York officials say they've reached an $875,000 settlement with CVS Pharmacy to stop sales of expired products � including food, medicine and baby formula. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who announced the agreement Tuesday, sued after investigators bought expired goods in 60% of CVS (CVS) stores they canvassed across the state. The settlement ends a lawsuit that the state filed after it said CVS breached a prior agreement to halt expired sales. Airplane part falls onto N.Y. home�s front lawn; Engine tail cone plummeted thousands of feet after Delta jet left JFK ROOSEVELT, N.Y. - An engine tailcone fell off a Delta Air Lines jet shortly after takeoff Thursday and plummeted thousands of feet before landing harmlessly on a lawn in a Long Island residential neighborhood. Apparently, neither the pilots nor anyone on the ground immediately noticed the mishap when it happened. The aircraft, a Boeing 777, doesn't need the part to fly and carried on safely to its destination, Tokyo, aviation officials said. (FLASHBACK) Engine fire grounds Delta plane in Atlanta; 138 on board safely evacuate after return to the gate ATLANTA - A company spokesman says a Delta plane headed to Philadelphia had to return to the gate just before takeoff from Atlanta because of an engine fire. Delta spokesman Carlos Santos said the MD88 was taxiing along the runway shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday when there were reports of "some flames coming out of the engine." He said airport fire trucks responded immediately. PAM COMMENTARY: A flashback from just last week, more mechanical problems from Delta planes. I've never flown Delta, mostly because the one time they quoted me the best deal, they gave away my reservation within the hour. My reservation confirmation number was even pointing to another customer's name by the time I called back. What fast service -- in screwing things up! Haven't bothered to call them back since, figured if they couldn't handle a simple reservation then I didn't want them putting me up in the air, either. Canadian rescued from Arctic ice A Canadian teenager has been rescued from an ice floe drifting in the Arctic sea, where he was reportedly stranded with two polar bears. Search and rescue teams parachuted onto the 15m (40ft) floe after spotting the 17-year-old Inuit youth from the air. They told the BBC he appeared to have shot and killed a mother polar bear in self-defence, orphaning her two cubs. China to provide $10B in loans to Africa SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) � China's premier on Sunday pledged $10 billion in low interest loans to African nations over the next three years and said Beijing would cancel the government debts of some of the poorest of those countries, as the Asian powerhouse looked to deflect criticism that its investments in the continent were motivated purely by greed. At a two-day China-Africa summit that began on Sunday, Wen Jiabao also said China would build 100 new clean energy projects for Africa over the same period as part of an effort to help the continent deal with climate change issues. "We will help Africa build up financing capacity," Wen said at the start of the two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit. "We will provide $10 billion in concessional loans to African countries." Concessional loans are ones that offer generous terms � better than market rates � to poorer countries. China's inroads into Africa have come at a price for Beijing. The country has been accused by some in the West of ignoring Africa's needs and the dismal rights records of some of its countries while looking only to sate its hunger for the fuel it needs to drive its bustling economy. China has, for example, been a key force in developing Sudan's vital oil sector even as the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum is accused of atrocities in the Darfur region. More recently, a $7 billion mining deal was signed between a little known Chinese company and Guinea's government � an agreement that came weeks after soldiers there opened fire on demonstrators and raped women in the streets. Search party finds no new clues to disappearance Three weeks after Morgan Dana Harrington vanished during a Metallica concert at the John Paul Jones Arena, almost 1,600 volunteers gathered over the weekend to search for any traces of the Virginia Tech student. Alas, the community search parties uncovered no new information, and the case continues to puzzle authorities. The effort was headed by the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center, which worked with local rescue teams to search in and near Charlottesville. LRC co-founder Bob Smither said he believes the weekend search for Harrington was more extensive than most community searches. �Law enforcement and search teams have done wonderful jobs,� Smither said. �But to get thousands of people out there, you�re going to find more stuff than a few [would].� Friday, search teams covered about a square mile near Copeley Bridge, where Harrington was last seen according to law enforcement officials. �That�s where we started, and that�s where we�ll probably go back to,� Smither said, adding that the groups would be �working outward� from this starting location. Smither, who has helped with several searches for missing persons since his own daughter was kidnapped while jogging in 1997, noted that scouring the same area for clues is anything but fruitless. �We did a search for a missing college student [in Utah]. Law enforcement and search and rescue teams looked at an area three times. On the fourth time, same area, they found something, so it never hurts to look multiple times,� he said. PAM COMMENTARY: My intuition tells me that they should be asking people from elsewhere in the state to look for her, that she wasn't left in that same area. Back to Pam's NEWS ARCHIVES Back to Pam's vegan vegetarian FUN page Pam's vegan vegetarian cookbook, with vegan vegetarian recipes Sources (if found on major news boards): [AJ] - InfoWars.com, PrisonPlanet.com, or other Alex Jones-affiliated sites [BF] - BuzzFlash.com [DN] - DemocracyNow.org [R] - Rense.com [WRH] - WhatReallyHappened.com ---------------------------
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