By Jim Hightower, AlterNet
Posted on April 27, 2011, Printed on April 29, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150761/how_tea_partiers_in_congress_are_doing_their_corporate_masters%27_bidding

They came, they saw, they conquered. This line pretty well sums up a little-reported but important story about the new tea partiers in the U.S. House of Representatives.

No sooner had they arrived than the corporate lobbying corps came to visit, saw what these supposed rebels were made of and quickly conquered them without a fight. The forces of big business needed only to lay out some campaign cash — and quicker than you can say, “Business as usual,” the budding lawmakers snatched up the money and immediately began carrying the lobbyists’ corporate agenda.

Check out the financial services subcommittee, which handles legislation affecting Wall Street bankers. Five tea partiers got coveted slots on this panel, and all five were suddenly showered with big donations from such financial lobbying interests as Goldman Sachs. Now, all five are sponsoring bills to undo parts of the recent reforms to reign in Wall Street excesses.

Published on Thursday, April 28, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/27/china-imf-economy-2016

After more than a century as the world’s largest economy, the US will need to adjust to its declining global hegemony

by Mark Weisbrot

Various observers have noted this week that China’s economy will be bigger than that of the United States in 2016. This comes from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) latest projections, which were made in its semi-annual April world economic outlook database. Since 2016 is just a few years away, and it will be the first time in more than a century that the United States will no longer be the world’s largest economy, this development will be the object of some discussion – from various perspectives.

Thursday 28 April 2011

by: Simon Johnson, Project Syndicate [3]

http://truthout.org/arrogance-and-authority/1304016615

Washington, DC – It is increasingly common to hear prominent American and European central bankers proclaim, with respect to the crisis of 2008-2010, the following verdict: “We did well.” Their view is that the various government actions to support the financial system helped to stabilize the situation. Indeed, what could be wrong when the United States Federal Reserve’s asset purchases may have actually made money (which is then turned over to the US Treasury)?

But to frame the issue in this way is, at best, to engage in delusion. At worst, however, it creates an image of arrogance that can only undermine the credibility on which central banks’ authority rests.

The real cost of the crisis is not measured by the profit and loss statement of any central bank – or by whether or not the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), run by the Treasury Department, made or lost money on its various activities.

by Dr. Carolyn Dean – April 29, 2011

http://www.naturalnews.com/032229_medical_monopoly_allopathic_medicine.html

(NaturalNews) The general public doesn’t realize there is an ongoing war for the control of our bodies. Allopathic medicine and the pharmaceutical industry demand a monopoly on treating disease and will stop at nothing to achieve that end.

I know this to be true because I’ve been portrayed a so-called victim of their schemes. My story comes up periodically as the “haters” of natural medicine or the hired quackbusters try to discredit anyone involved with natural medicine. I don’t consider myself a victim but simply a knowledgeable participant in the age-old struggle of power versus authority.

Back in 1979 when I set up my practice as a dedicated natural medicine doctor with a medical license and naturopathic degree, my mere existence threatened allopathic medicine. I further drove a nail in my own coffin by going on the media and talking about alternatives to drug-based medicine. I was a thorn in the side of the medical establishment.

Published on Friday, April 29, 2011 by The Independent/UK

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-donald-trumps-lunacy-reveals-core-truth-about-the-republicans-2276222.html

by Johann Hari

Since the election of Barack Obama, the Republican Party has proved that one of its central intellectual arguments was right all along. It has long claimed that evolution is a myth believed in only by whiny liberals – and it turns out it was on to something. Every six months, the party venerates a new hero, and each time it is somebody further back on the evolutionary scale.

Sarah Palin told cheering rallies that her message to the world was: “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way!” – but that wasn’t enough. So the party found Michele Bachmann, who said darkly it was an “interesting coincidence” that swine flu only breaks out under Democratic presidents, claims the message of The Lion King is “I’m better at what I do because I’m gay”, and argues “there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”

Published on Friday, April 29, 2011 by PR Watch

http://prwatch.org/news/2011/04/10665/insurers-getting-rich-not-paying-care

by Wendell Potter

If I had stayed in the insurance industry, my net worth would have spiked between 4 p.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Thursday last week — and I wouldn’t even have had to show up for work.

I’m betting that just about every executive of a for-profit health insurance company, whose total compensation ultimately depends on the value of their stock options, woke up on Good Friday considerably wealthier than they were 24 hours earlier. Why? Because of the spectacular profits that one of those companies reported Thursday morning.

Among those suddenly wealthier executives, by the way, are the corporate medical directors who decide whether or not patients will get coverage for treatments their doctors believe might save their lives.

UnitedHealth Group, the biggest health insurer in terms of revenue and market value, earned so much more during the first three months of this year than Wall Street expected that investors rushed to buy shares of every one of the seven health insurers that comprise the managed care sector. In my view, it would be more accurate to call it the managed care cartel.

Published on Friday, April 29, 2011 by PR Watch

http://prwatch.org/news/2011/04/10665/insurers-getting-rich-not-paying-care

by Wendell Potter

If I had stayed in the insurance industry, my net worth would have spiked between 4 p.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Thursday last week — and I wouldn’t even have had to show up for work.

I’m betting that just about every executive of a for-profit health insurance company, whose total compensation ultimately depends on the value of their stock options, woke up on Good Friday considerably wealthier than they were 24 hours earlier. Why? Because of the spectacular profits that one of those companies reported Thursday morning.

Among those suddenly wealthier executives, by the way, are the corporate medical directors who decide whether or not patients will get coverage for treatments their doctors believe might save their lives.

Published on Friday, April 29, 2011 by Mongabay.com

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0428-hance_extremeweather_us.html

by Jeremy Hance

The short answer to the question of whether or not on-going floods in the US Midwest and fires in Texas are linked to a warming Earth is: maybe. The long answer, however, is that while it is difficult—some argue impossible—for scientists to link a single extreme weather event to climate change, climate models have long shown that extreme weather events will both intensify and become more frequent as the world continues to heat up. In other words, the probability of such extreme events increases along with global average temperature.

“There have always been extreme events,” Peter Stott, a climatologist from the UK’s Met Office, told Yale360 in a piece on extreme weather and climate change. “Natural variability does play a role, but now so does climate change. It is about changing the odds of the event happening.”

Published on Friday, April 29, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/29-1

by Robert Weissman

Companies that bid for government contracts should disclose their campaign spending, in order to diminish the likelihood that contracts are a payoff for political expenditures.

The Obama administration has indicated that it plans to impose such a rule, through an executive order. Ideally, the rule would prohibit contractors and lobbyists from campaign spending, but a disclosure standard is a very positive if modest step.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the trade association for big business, however, takes a somewhat different view.

Eric W. Dolan

April 28, 2011

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/28/aclu-defends-cancer-patient-fired-for-legal-marijuana-use/

The American Civil Liberties Union urged a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday to reinstate a lawsuit against Wal-Mart and a manager in Michigan for firing an employee who used medical marijuana in accordance with state law.

Thirty-year-old former Wal-Mart employee Joseph Casias used marijuana to treat the symptoms of an inoperable brain tumor and sinus cancer.

Casias was fired in 2009 after testing positive for marijuana. He had been successfully employed for more than five years by a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek and began using medical marijuana after voters approved the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in 2008.

David Usborne

April 29, 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/250-die-in-one-day-as-twisters-rampage-from-texas-to-virginia-2276290.html

Search-and-rescue teams were last night hunting for survivors beneath fallen masonry and tangled joists, power lines and fallen trees in towns and hamlets across seven states in the south-eastern US which were ravaged by the worst outbreak of tornadoes seen in almost four decades. Almost 250 people are known to have died.

President Barack Obama, promising help in rebuilding, described the loss of life as “heartbreaking” and called the damage to homes and businesses “nothing short of catastrophic”.

Stunned residents of Tuscaloosa in Alabama awoke yesterday to discover a city partly razed by a single killer twister that cut a swath more than a mile wide and may have got close to an F5 level, the highest on the intensity scale. Shopping centres, shops and whole residential neighbourhoods were shredded, reduced to an almost unfathomable jumble of destruction. At least 169 people died in Alabama alone.

JOSH GERSTEIN

April 28, 2011

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53890.html

President Barack Obama formally unveiled the reshuffling of his national security team Thursday, including new nominees for Secretary of Defense and CIA director. Yet he also stressed that the new assignments will not bring significant change to the administration’s defense and anti-terrorism strategies.

“I’ve worked closely with most of the individuals on this stage, and all of them have my complete confidence,” Obama said as he announced the nominations during a ceremony moved from the Rose Garden to the East Room due to threatening weather. “Given the pivotal period that we’re entering into, I felt it was absolutely critical that we have this team in place so we can stay focused on our mission. … I cannot think of a group of individuals better suited to lead our national security team during this difficult time.”

JOSH GERSTEIN

April 28, 2011

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53890.html

President Barack Obama formally unveiled the reshuffling of his national security team Thursday, including new nominees for Secretary of Defense and CIA director. Yet he also stressed that the new assignments will not bring significant change to the administration’s defense and anti-terrorism strategies.

“I’ve worked closely with most of the individuals on this stage, and all of them have my complete confidence,” Obama said as he announced the nominations during a ceremony moved from the Rose Garden to the East Room due to threatening weather. “Given the pivotal period that we’re entering into, I felt it was absolutely critical that we have this team in place so we can stay focused on our mission. … I cannot think of a group of individuals better suited to lead our national security team during this difficult time.”