May 19, 2011

By Catherine Burke, AlterNet
Posted on May 17, 2011, Printed on May 18, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150971/3_fatal_flaws_in_ayn_rand%27s_perverse_%27moral_philosophy%27

It is astonishing that a 54-year-old book, based upon three patently false premises, has suddenly been resurrected. The Chair of the House Budget Committee requires his staff to read Atlas Shrugged. On April 19, 2011 it ranked 17th on Amazon’s list of best sellers. It is said to be a favorite among Tea Party activists. It’s even been made into an independent movie, albeit omitting some of the steamier sex – one woman and three men?

The first error is the assertion that we humans, at least the best of us, are autonomous individuals who have no need for other human beings other than as useful tools. The second error is to perpetuate the libertarian idea that no social goal justifies “forcing” an individual to be a resource for others. In other words, taxation is theft from “producers” to benefit “parasites.” The third error is that markets are “free” in the sense of operating best without any rules or regulation.

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on May 17, 2011, Printed on May 18, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150985/our_government_is_corrupt_through_and_through_–_where%27s_the_outrage

Last week, jurors in a federal bribery case got a taste of good, old-fashioned corruption as New Orleans’ former chief technology officer, Greg Mefford, offered the prurient details of how one vendor, Mark St. Pierre, plied city officials with almost $900,000 in bribes and kickbacks that included luxurious travel, the use of a yacht and boozy, good-old-boy poker parties complete with the requisite hookers.

The story represents the kind of corruption that makes splashy headlines, and of course, rightly outrages people. But the impact of this kind of criminality on our governance pales beside that of the everyday, entirely legal kind of corruption most people seem to take more or less for granted.

Consider just a few items “ripped from the headlines” during the past few weeks.

Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by Politico.com

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55088.html

by David Rogers

It’s Back to the Future, and who woulda’ thought: Bill Clinton’s the new target.

After campaigning on the promise to roll back spending to Bush-era levels, House Republicans have overshot their mark and landed in the last years of the Clinton administration — at least in the case of cuts from labor, health and education appropriations important to poor and working-class families.

Indeed, a proposed $139.2 billion cap for the annual labor, health and education bill is about $19 billion less than the eight-year average for the same discretionary spending under former President George W. Bush — when measured in current dollars. It comes closest, in fact, to a bill negotiated in late 2000 by the man who’s the White House budget director again, Jack Lew.

The Back to the Future scenario is important to the current debt ceiling debate on two counts.

Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/17-6

Where does one find succor and seeds of renewal in times such as these?

by Phil Rockstroh

“Everything that everyone is afraid of has already happened: The fragility of capitalism, which we don’t want to admit; the loss of the empire of the United States; and American exceptionalism. In fact, American exceptionalism is that we are exceptionally backward in about fifteen different categories, from education to infrastructure. But we’re in a stage of denial: we want to re-establish things as they used to be, to put the country back where it was.” — James Hillman

Most of the men I grew up with in Alabama and Georgia deny the veracity of climate change. They are unwilling to make the connection between their ownership (actually the bank’s) of SUVs and oversized pickup trucks and the super storms and massive floods that, now with alarming regularity, ravish the region.

Because their besieged sense of self is intermeshed with their motor vehicles, they hold fast to these symbols of the fading world they know. In their imaginings, these gruesome, noxious (and obnoxious) machines represent power and mobility — exactly the aspects of their lives that have been diminished by the demands and degradations of oligarchic capitalism.

Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by RobertReich.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/17-10

by Robert Reich

Technically, the federal government has now reached the limit of its capacity to borrow money.

Raising the debt ceiling used to be a technical adjustment, made almost automatically. Now it’s a political football.

Democrats should never have agreed to linking it to an agreement on the long-term budget deficit.

But now that the debt ceiling is in play, there’s no end to what the radical right will demand. John Boehner is already using the classic “they’re making me” move, seemingly helpless in the face of Tea Party storm troopers who refuse to raise the ceiling unless they get their way. Their way is reactionary and regressive – eviscerating Medicare, cutting Medicaid and programs for the poor, slashing education and infrastructure, and using most of the savings to reduce taxes on the rich.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/one_lawman_with_the_guts_to_go_after_wall_street_20110518/

Posted on May 18, 2011

By Robert Scheer

The fix was in to let the Wall Street scoundrels off the hook for the enormous damage they caused in creating the Great Recession. All of the leading politicians and officials, federal and state, Republican and Democrat, were on board to complete the job of saving the banks while ignoring their victims … until last week when the attorney general of New York refused to go along. 

Eric Schneiderman will probably fail, as did his predecessors in that job; the honest sheriff doesn’t last long in a town that houses the Wall Street casino. But decent folks should be cheering him on. Despite a mountain of evidence of robo-signed mortgage contracts, deceitful mortgage-based securities and fraudulent foreclosures, the banks were going to be able to cut their potential losses to what was, for them, a minuscule amount.

Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by ProPublica

http://www.propublica.org/article/scientists-cast-doubt-on-tsa-tests-of-full-body-scanners

by Michael Grabell, ProPublica

The Transportation Security Administration says its full-body X-ray scanners are safe and that radiation from a scan is equivalent to what’s received in about two minutes of flying. The company that makes them says it’s safer than eating a banana.

But some scientists with expertise in imaging and cancer say the evidence made public to support those claims is unreliable. And in a new letter sent to White House science adviser John Holdren, they question why the TSA won’t make the scanners available for independent testing by outside scientists.

The machines, which are designed to reveal objects hidden under clothing, have the potential to close a significant security gap for the TSA because metal detectors can’t find explosives or ceramic knives, which can be just as sharp as the box cutters that hijackers used on 9/11.

By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, May 16, 2011

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24789

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) carrying a humanitarian cargo to Gaza was attacked by an Israeli naval patrol within the so-called Palestinian Security Zone on May 15, at 10.54pm EDT.

In the course of the last few hours, Global Research has communicated several times with the Rachel Corrie vessel en route to Gaza. What is provided below is a detailed update. An earlier article was posted at 12.30am EDT 

The vessel left the Greek Port of Piraeus, on Wednesday, May 11. The humanitarian initiative is sponsored by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), chaired by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/foreclosure-fraud-audit-false-claims-act_n_862686.html?view=print

First Posted: 05/16/11 04:42 PM ET Updated: 05/16/11 05:19 PM ET

WASHINGTON — A set of confidential federal audits accuse the nation’s five largest mortgage companies of defrauding taxpayers in their handling of foreclosures on homes purchased with government-backed loans, four officials briefed on the findings told The Huffington Post.

The five separate investigations were conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general and examined Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial, the sources said.

The audits accuse the five major lenders of violating the False Claims Act, a Civil War-era law crafted as a weapon against firms that swindle the government. The audits were completed between February and March, the sources said. The internal watchdog office at HUD referred its findings to the Department of Justice, which must now decide whether to file charges.

Alliance for Natural Health-USA On May 17, 2011

http://www.anh-usa.org/fda-accuses-supplement-manufacturers-of-selling-drugs/

Misleading claims vs. legitimate science—getting to the truth can be a minefield! Which is why the Free Speech about Science Act is so important. ^[1]

The US Food and Drug Administration recently sent warning letters to manufacturers of a number of products—MedaVir ^[2], Herpaflor ^[3], Viruxo Anti-Viral Support ^[4], C-Cure ^[5], and Never an Outbreak ^[6]—for making health claims about treating or preventing sexually transmitted diseases, including herpes.

According to the FDA press release ^[6], “While some of the companies market these products as dietary supplements, these products are all drug products under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), as they are offered for the treatment of disease. These drug products, which are offered for the treatment of STDs, may not be introduced into interstate commerce without an FDA-approved new drug application (NDA).”

Alliance for Natural Health-USA On May 17, 2011

http://www.anh-usa.org/fda-accuses-supplement-manufacturers-of-selling-drugs/

Misleading claims vs. legitimate science—getting to the truth can be a minefield! Which is why the Free Speech about Science Act is so important. ^[1]

The US Food and Drug Administration recently sent warning letters to manufacturers of a number of products—MedaVir ^[2], Herpaflor ^[3], Viruxo Anti-Viral Support ^[4], C-Cure ^[5], and Never an Outbreak ^[6]—for making health claims about treating or preventing sexually transmitted diseases, including herpes.

According to the FDA press release ^[6], “While some of the companies market these products as dietary supplements, these products are all drug products under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), as they are offered for the treatment of disease. These drug products, which are offered for the treatment of STDs, may not be introduced into interstate commerce without an FDA-approved new drug application (NDA).”

May 17, 2011

Former California Governor in Emotional Confession

LOS ANGELES (The Borowitz Report) – Amid rumors that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff ten years ago, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made an emotional confession at a hastily called press conference today.

“I am the Sperminator,” Mr. Schwarzenegger told the room of stunned reporters.

The former governor and film star said that he knew the child in question was his “after no one could understand a damn thing it was saying.”

He said that when he first learned he had fathered the child, he considered a variety of options to remedy the situation, including traveling back in time ten years and using a condom.

May 17, 2011

Former California Governor in Emotional Confession

LOS ANGELES (The Borowitz Report) – Amid rumors that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff ten years ago, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made an emotional confession at a hastily called press conference today.

“I am the Sperminator,” Mr. Schwarzenegger told the room of stunned reporters.

The former governor and film star said that he knew the child in question was his “after no one could understand a damn thing it was saying.”

He said that when he first learned he had fathered the child, he considered a variety of options to remedy the situation, including traveling back in time ten years and using a condom.