Democrats Ignore Dead Babies: One Child Dies From Hunger Every Six Seconds Because Wall Street Criminals Stole The World's Money.

Wall Street has worked with Congress to loot our country and much of the rest of the world. Wall Street brokers have become filthy rich stealing everyone's money, and they pay kick-backs to Congress so that nobody will investigate or prosecute them, or force them to pay back the money they stole. Babies are dying because of what Wall Street did. The Democrats turn away from the little dead baby corpses because they're too busy hauling away their share of the loot.

We may be shocked as we watch our neighbors thrown out of work, their jobs sent to third world countries to be done by slave labor. Or we see the for sale signs followed by bank-owned signs throughout our communities, nobody plans to retire anymore, everyone says their savings and retirement money has been stolen by Wall Street, their credit card company just raised their interest rates, insurance premiums go up, food goes up, everything costs more but people can't find work. And it's really not something that most of us can understand, those of us who did not go through the Great Depression, anyway, those of us who were raised to believe that our society was fair, businesses honest, government existed to protect us. Ha!

But as bad as things are or may get in this country, it's a lot worse in other countries. The effect of the market, currency, real estate, stock, and financial manipulation, conspiracy, collusion, theft and fraud by the people on Wall Street, in conjunction with our politicians in Congress, is going to cause hundreds of millions of people in the world to die. At least One Billion people are suffering from hunger right now because of what the Wall Street criminals have done.

Who suffers the most from hunger and malnutrition? Babies and children. One child dies from hunger every six seconds. Yet the Democrats have refused to investigate, prosecute, seize the assets, indict, imprison the Wall Street criminals who are mostly responsible for the economic devastation in the world. Dead Babies don't get the Democrats' attention. They're too busy counting their bribes.

There is enough food in the world, right now, to feed everyone. We could immediately eliminate hunger and malnutrition with the food we have on hand. But the problem is that the rich won't share the food with the poor. The number of people suffering from hunger right now is greater than the total population of the U.S., Canada, and Europe all combined. Try to imagine every single person, old men and women, babies, children, pregnant women, your family and siblings and spouse and children and parents, all being hungry, every one in our country being hungry and not having enough food every single day. Try to imagine that.

We keep hearing that the "popular" charities are having trouble fundraising because of the recession or depression in this country. Museums, zoos, school programs. But there is an institutional system of programs which provides meager aid to the poorest people very year, just enough to keep them alive, and this year there is not enough aid to stave off massive starvation.

Right now, the United Nations is reporting that because food-aid is down due to the poor economy in the world, more than One Billion people in the world will face unrelieved hunger this year.

One Billion people. 60% of them are women. A child dies every six seconds because of hunger. And nobody really cares. These are people who are being systematically exterminated by starvation not because there is not enough food in the world, but just because the rich people have taken way more than their share, and the politicians take bribes to look the other way, step over the bodies of the dead and dying on the way to their private jets and bags of gold.

Think of all the rich people who take their money, usually without paying taxes, and hide it in private charities where they can keep it forever, without paying any taxes, as long as they pay out 5% per year. Like Bill Gates, for example, who hides his money in his private charity so he doesn't have to pay taxes on it. Instead, he does a little PR photo op to convince the world he's really a generous guy, but he keeps most of his money, while a billion people go hungry. If he wanted to help, he would give away his money. Or people like Bill Clinton who has reportedly collected almost a billion dollars from rich people, from foreign countries, from the princes and oil sheiks of Saudi Arabia, from corporations after he left office, and he puts his money into his own "private" charity while a billion people starve.

How about Warren Buffett, who keeps saying that he plans to give away all his money when he dies. I don't believe a word he says. But for anybody who does believe him, ask this question: Why doesn't he give his money away now, so that one billion people don't starve to death this year? All these people who publicly insist that they don't want the money, they're such philanthropists all they want to do is to help others, they'll give it all away when they die, but in the meantime they hide the money in private charities so they can avoid paying taxes, and pay out the absolute minimum, 5% per year, to keep their money tax-free.

It works like this: Let's say somebody earned $200 million this year. They are allowed under our tax laws (written for the benefit of rich people) to put half of that, $100 million, into a new bank account that they label under their own name - Joe Citizen, charity. They don't pay taxes on that money. As long as they pay out 5%/year to some charity, they get to keep the rest of their money. Pretty good con, huh, and all the rich people use it. If they really wanted to be charitable, they would give away all the money in their charity. Instead, they keep all their money, and pay out the absolute minimum that is required under the tax laws.

If our government taxed the rich and shut down these tax scams, maybe there wouldn't be so many people starving to death in the world. We could use that money to feed the hungry.

And why isn't there a world tax? Why aren't people required to pay taxes to help the nations which have been exploited and plundered for centuries by the western world? Because the poor people don't have a voice, and because nobody cares that they are hungry, and that their children die.

What about agri-business, modern miracles, inventions, science, medicine, all these things we hear about that are supposed to be so amazing? What difference does it make when a Billion People are going to starve this year. For these people, they get nothing. Agribusiness, once promoted as a system to improve farming throughout the world, has instead concentrated food production in the hands of a few corporate CEOs who increase the prices for seed, wipe out local farmers, and watch the people die of starvation if they can't pay the outrageous prices charged by the corporations. Same for medical, same for water, same for everything.

The fact is that we produce enough food for everyone, but a few corporations, like Monsanto, have control of the seeds and food production, and use that monopoly control to keep raising the costs of everything. People are dying of hunger -- a child dies every six seconds from hunger -- because the corporations keep raising the price of food to increase the bonuses they pay to their CEOs and corporate insiders. Corporate theft causes people to die, causes babies to die.

Why is it with all the modern miracles we hear about, things just keep getting worse? The answer is that more and more of the world's wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few, and the majority of people have nothing. Not even a bite to eat. We should take that money back from the rich people, and distribute it to everyone else. That's the only solution.

"Despite a record level of people suffering from hunger, food aid is at a 20-year low due to the poor global economy, United Nations officials said today. The result: More than 1 billion people across the world will face hunger this year. "

"'For the world's most vulnerable, the perfect storm is hitting with a vengeance,' said U.N. World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran. So far this year, the agency has received less than half of the $6.7 billion it needs to feed 108 million people in 74 countries, Sheeran said."

... "Iron deficiency, the most common form of malnutrition, affects billions worldwide. It can impede brain development."

"Vitamin A deficiency affects 140 million pre-school children in 118 countries. It is the leading cause of child blindness and can make people more susceptible to diseases. It kills one million infants a year, according to UNICEF."

"Iodine deficiency affects 780 million people worldwide. Babies born to iodine-deficient mothers can have mental impairments. "

... "While enough food exists to feed the world's entire population, the WFP estimates that the number of hungry in the world tops 1 billion, or about one in every six people - more than the populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union combined. "

"The statistics (from the WFP) on those facing the results of hunger can be stark:
An estimated 146 million children in developing countries are underweight.
Every six seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes.
More than 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women."

While aid programs made inroads in combating hunger at the end of the 20th century, rising food prices have been negating those efforts, causing the number of hungry to rise again everywhere except in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The rising cost of food caused the number of hungry to jump by 75 million people in 2007 and 40 million people in 2008.

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_51443.html

I'm sure most people already give a little to a local charity or food bank. But in addition, maybe this year you could send Ten Dollars to Unicef to feed the hungry babies in the world, and send a letter to your Senators telling them to indict, prosecute, seize the assets, throw into prison every scumbucket from Wall Street, fix the tax code and get rid of the tax cons, and make the rich people start paying taxes again. Demand that the Senators take every penny they have received from Wall Street in the last 8 years and donate the entire amount to Unicef. It's all dirty money, obtained through corruption, they should be ashamed of themselves for taking it, but at a minimum they should send it all to save a few more babies from dying. Here's the Unicef link: http://www.unicef.org/

Damn! Now What Am I Going To Serve For Sunday Dinner?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that 33,000 pounds of beef tongue has been recalled. The reason for the recall is that the tonsils had not been removed from the tongues before shipping.

Most of the cow's tongues were shipped to California and to Nebraska. What the heck is California doing with a bunch of cow's tongues? School lunch programs? Isn't California the leader in number of people incarcerated? Do they feed the prisoners beef tongues? And if so, what difference does it make if they also feed them tonsils?

For anyone looking for a good recipe for beef tongue, here's a tip: remove the tonsils before sauteeing. Supposedly if you leave the tonsils on, it increases the risk that you will be serving your dinner guests with bovine spongiform or what we used to call Mad Cow Disease.

And why does our country sell food products that can kill us? Because corporations treat food production just like they treat tire production: cheap labor, no safety standards, use as much poison as they can get away with, sell to the public, bribe the politicians so nobody can sue them, take the money and flee the country in advance of the angry mob. Cows weren't made in nature with inherent weird diseases like Mad Cow Disease. That was created by the corporate food masters who feed the cows poison, then turn around and sell deadly beef to the public.

And guess who is responsible for overseeing food production in this country? The federal government, most of whom are on the take, being bribed to look the other way. What a disgrace.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/64489812.html

Democrats Use Their Control Of The National Government to Shakedown Businesses And Sell Out The People.

You know how they used to have all those movies about the Mafia, the Mob, the Dons, the Rackets, how they ran criminal enterprises and made money and killed anyone who got in their way.

You know why you don't hear about the mob so much anymore? Because they all put on nice suits and ran for Congress. They do the same things they always did, just in very expensive clothes.

For example, the Shake-Down. This is how it worked. Guido and Carmine would pay a little visit to the enterprising young family man whose entire family had come together and put up the money to open a pizza place in the neighborhood. Sal's Pizza signs were painted on the window, the floors were washed down, and a new business opened its doors. Then Guido and Carmine would stop by and explain how it worked: "We'd hate to see someone burn your place down, Sal, but if you pay us protection money, we'll make sure that doesn't happen. Say 10% of your gross." If Sal pays every week, everything's okay. If Sal doesn't pay, Guido and Carmine will send a friend to burn down Sal's Pizza. It's just that simple.

And that is the business model for the politicians in Washington D.C. The Democrats have perfected the model under the leadership of Bill Clinton who argued that the Democratic Party should take money from corporations and do their bidding, and abandon the working people, the poor, the excluded, the minorities, the unions, the traditional Democratic base. Bill's thinking must have been like this: "The corporations are the ones with all the money. If we want money, we need to go join their side."

I've said all along that the Democrats are just doing shake-downs since they got into office. First they had the big "Credit Card Reform" shakedown. They went out into the public and got the unwashed masses all riled up saying that Congress was going to get tough, they were going to pass some laws to "reform" the credit card industry. Then the Democrats went to the credit card industry, which is really the loan shark industry except the people wear more expensive suits. And instead of busting your kneecaps, they take the food off your kids' plates.

But the Democrats went to the credit card loansharks and said Look, either you pay us off bigtime or we will pass some laws to "reform" your loansharking industry. Thus the fix was in, the deal was made, the people betrayed. And instead of "reforming" the credit card and loansharking industry, in the only significant way needed, which is to limit the amount of interest they can charge, the Democrats made some meaningless administrative changes that will help no one. From now on, the loansharks have to send you a letter before they come over to your house to bust your face in. "Notice" is what you get. Thanks for nothing.

This whole "health care reform" craziness we've been hearing about for months now? Wash, rinse, repeat. It's the same deal as the credit card reform. Even worse, actually. The Democrats met secretly with the major corporations in the medical care industry: doctors' lobbies, health insurance industries, hospital owners, pharmaceutical companies (aka drug dealers) and cut a deal with them within 2 months of taking control of the national government. It was a shake-down.

The Democrats held a series of secret meetings with the health care corporate industry and cut deals with them starting in April of this year, set up phony organizations, got money to fund them, all to promote a health care "reform" written by the corporations which will get them Billions of dollars more every year, and which will get nothing for the citizens. There will be no healthcare reform to help the people of this country. Instead, the Democrats promised they would compel, by order of law, 40 million more people to buy health insurance. Do you know how much money that is? Say $5,000 per person per year. That's Two Hundred Billion Dollars that the Democrats promised to deliver to the healthcare corporations. Say the health insurance industry takes 30% off the top (which they do), that's Seventy Billion Dollars to them, with an additional One Hundred Thirty Billion Dollars to be paid out to the doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical drug dealers. What a con. For the citizens, we get nothing.

You know what else the Democrats promised the health insurance industry? First, the Democrats will pass a law forcing all Americans to buy private health insurance, even if they can't afford it, and even if the coverage they get is worthless. But next, the Democrats also promised the health insurance industry that there would be no limits to the amount they could charge citizens for premiums every month. In other words, if the insurance company decides to charge you $10,000 per month as a premium, that's perfectly okay with the Democrats. After all, they get bribes and kick-backs from the insurance companies, so it's in their best interest to help their corporate friends loot the American public.

Who do you think came up with this brilliant idea of the secret meetings? Secret organizations set up between the White House and the health insurance industry and given phony misleading names like "Citizens for Healthcare Reform," to fool and deceive the public? The first ShakeDown meeting was in April, maybe two months after the Democrats took control of the government. They clearly had this in mind. But who? Rahm Emanuel is my guess, because he opposed healthcare reform all along, he wants to stay on the good (receiving end) side of corporate America because he plans to run for Senate, then the White House, and because the guy from the White House who attended all the planning meetings, got this whole thing going, was Jim Messina, who works directly for Rahm Emanuel.

By the way, I don't see the benefit of spending too much time berating Obama. He's Faust. He sold his soul to get the top spot, but he's had no effect whatsoever on changing anything. The people who run the Democratic party are the ones who bring in the most bribes from the corporations. That's it. End of story.

I mostly blame Congress, but hold Obama equally accountable because he's going along for personal self-aggrandizement: he wants to be reelected, he wants to claim that he got "credit card reform" and "health care reform," that he "won" the wars. I assume that when he leaves office, he wants the corporations to give him hundreds of millions of dollars, just like Bill Clinton got. His vanity and ambition seems to guide his every move. Any commitment to the public that ever did exist is no longer apparent.

The effect of the 2008 election is clear: Instead of having the Capone Family terrorize and exploit the public, we've now got the Gambino Family in charge. For your average working person, there is no change: a bunch of criminals stealing, lying, cheating, bribing law enforcement, making our lives miserable.

P.S.: the article below refers to Jim Messina from the White House being involved in these meetings. Messina works under the direction of Rahm Emanuel. Rahm Emanuel, when he was still in Congress, was known as Wall Street's favorite politician because he took more Wall Street money than anybody else. He is rumored to be planning to run for Senate from Illinois in 2012, and likely wants to run for President in 2016, and will want to have control of the big corporate money for his campaign: Wall Street (who he has protected by making sure the Obama administration gives them lots of money and does nothing to hold them accountable). And now he surely is going after the money from the medical corporations by opposing health care reform.

Emanuel already has a lock on the defense money because he supports war, loves wars, wants more war. He volunteered to work with the Israeli military during the first Gulf War but oddly chose to never serve in the U.S. military. Rahm Emanuel, chosen by Obama, is a corporate Clintonista pro-war Democrat in Name Only. As soon as Obama brought him into the White House, we should have known it was already game over. Actually, that and the decision to bring in Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Tim Geithner, Larry Sumners -- actually almost every person selected by Obama to serve with him in the White House is a pro-war pro-Wall Street money-grubbing corporate sell-out. We expect change from this gang of thieves?

Excerpts below, link to article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091016/pl_politico/28362

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"At a meeting last April with corporate lobbyists, aides to President Barack Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) helped set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups, that has played a key role in bolstering public support for health care reform."

"The role Baucus’s chief of staff, Jon Selib, and deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina played in launching the groups was part of a successful effort by Democrats to enlist traditional enemies of health care reform to their side. No quid pro quo was involved, they insist, as do the lobbyists themselves."

[NOTE: THIS STATEMENT, "NO QUID PRO QUO" IS REALLY PART OF THE COVER-UP. THE LAWS WHICH CONGRESS WRITES TO GOVERN THEMSELVES SAY THAT THE POLITICIANS CAN TAKE MONEY OR SOLICIT MONEY FROM ANYONE AS LONG AS THERE WAS NO "QUID PRO QUO" INVOLVED IN THE DONATION. WHAT THAT MEANS IS THAT THE POLITICIANS DON'T SAY OUTRIGHT "GIVE ME MONEY AND I'LL VOTE TO GIVE YOU TAXPAYER MONEY, OR PASS WHATEVER LAWS YOU WANT." INSTEAD, THEY ALWAYS PRETEND THAT THESE TWO THINGS ARE SEPARATE: THE POLITICIAN SAYS I WILL VOTE AS THE CORPORATION INSTRUCTS; AND THE CORPORATIONS SAYS WELL, JUST COINCIDENTALLY, WE WILL GIVE YOU HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR THE DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN PARTY, BECAUSE BOTH PARTIES OPERATE THE SAME WAY].

"The result has been a somewhat unlikely alliance between an administration that came into power criticizing George W. Bush for his closeness to Big Business and groups such as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the American Medical Association."

"The previously undisclosed meeting April 15 at the offices of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee led to the creation of two groups — Americans for Stable Quality Care and a now-defunct predecessor group called Healthy Economy Now — that have spent tens of millions of dollars on TV advertising supporting health reform efforts."

[NOTE: THE MEETING WAS HELD AT THE DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE OFFICES. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS? THAT IS THE GROUP THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR RAISING MONEY FOR DEMOCRATS IN THE SENATE IN CONGRESS. I WONDER IF THE DEMOCRATS TOLD THE CORPORATE LOBBYISTS TO JUST BRING WHEELBARROWS FULL OF CASH. IT'S THAT BLATANT WHAT'S GOING ON.]

"In the most recent ad sponsored by Americans for Stable Quality Care, Obama speaks directly into the camera for 60 seconds, extolling the virtues of health care reform, while text at the bottom of the screen encourages viewers to visit the websites of the White House and the Finance Committee, which this week approved a 10-year, $829 billion health overhaul." [OBAMA IS AN ON-CAMERA SPOKESPERSON FOR THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY, BUT THE WHOLE THING IS BEING COVERED UP BY CREATING THIS PHONY GROUP THAT IS SUPPOSEDLY "SUPPORTING" HEALTHCARE "REFORM," WHICH IS REALLY JUST A GIVEAWAY OF TAXPAYER MONEY. THE FUNNY THING IS THAT OBAMA WOULD PROBABLY NEVER HAVE GOTTEN THE GIG IF ED MCMAHON HADN'T DIED. I THOUGHT HE HAD A LOCK ON THE COMMERCIALS SELLING CRAP TO THE PUBLIC.]

... "Days after the meeting, Healthy Economy Now’s website address was registered, and meeting attendees began receiving unsolicited calls asking for cash for the coalition from Baldick, whose firm — Hilltop Public Solutions — had been hired to run Healthy Economy Now. In addition to PhRMA and the American Medical Association, the strange-bedfellows coalition included AARP, the American Cancer Society, the Business Roundtable, the advocacy group Families USA and the Service Employees International Union, as well as trade groups for biotech and medical device firms." [AARP IS AN INSURANCE SALES GROUP THAT FRONTS AS A PRO-SENIOR GROUP. THE FACT THAT THE SEIU WAS INVOLVED IS UNFORTUNATELY NO LONGER A SURPRISE, SINCE THAT UNION SEEMS TO ALWAYS BE ON THE SIDE OF THE CORPORATE RULERS, NEVER ON THE SIDE OF THE PEOPLE].

[THE ARTICLE ALSO SAYS THAT PHRMA, THE LOBBYING GROUP FOR THE PHARMACEUTICAL/DRUG DEALERS, AGREED TO GIVE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF MONEY IN EXCHANGE FOR THE DEMOCRATS AGREEING THEY WOULD NOT TRY TO FORCE THE DRUG COMPANIES TO LOWER THE PRICE THAT THEY CHARGE AMERICANS FOR THEIR DRUGS. WHAT A DISGUSTING DISCLOSURE].

"Allison [someone speaking on ethical issues] said that ... “What you’ve had was the Senate and the White House sitting down and cutting deals with special interests,” he said. “I don’t think that’s quite what the American people signed up for when the Obama campaign said that they were going to limit the influence of special interests in this White House.”

[THE COMMERCIALS FOR THESE PHONY GROUPS WERE CREATED BY]"AKPD Message and Media, which was founded by White House senior adviser David Axelrod, still owes him $2 million and employs one of his sons — and GMMB."

National League Pennant Race: The Big Blue Wrecking Crew vs. The Philly Cheesesteak Eaters

The National League Pennant race begins tonight in Los Angeles with the Dodgers taking on the Philadelphia Phillies, and whipping their asses. It is unfortunate for the Phillies, but they must lose so that the nation can have a Dodgers-Yankees World Series.

But the Phillies have a good baseball team, they've had a good year, and the city of Philadelphia has the honor of being one of the culinary capitals of the U.S.

Didn't know that, did you?

If you thought that the Yankees and the Red Sox were an intense rivalry, or the U.S. Civil War pitted brother against brother in a bloody battle, or that Leno vs. Letterman tested the loyalties of real Americans, then you've probably never heard of the Pat's vs. Geno's Philly Cheesesteak War in that great city of Philadelphia, the city that is sending their team to Los Angeles to be badly beaten, then sent home as the team that could'a been contenders.

But one thing they have in Philadelphia that nobody can take away from them (in addition to that cracked bell) is the great honor of being the city that invented the Philly Cheesesteak. The two top contenders who claim to make the best Philly Cheesesteak sit on opposite corners in South Philly, a decades-long rivalry for the throne: Pat's and Geno's.



Some people claim that Pat's, the original, makes the better Philly Cheesesteak because they use the "real" Cheez Whiz, not the artificial kind. But it's a subject of controversy.



Go Dodgers!

American League Pennant Playoff: The Bronx Bombers vs. The Mickey Mouse Club

The two American League teams who will battle it out for four of seven games for the American League Pennant this year are the New York Yankees (better known as the Bronx Bombers) and the Anaheim Angels (better known as the Mickey Mouse Club).

Okay, I made up that last part.

Who would name a baseball team the "Angels?" Is it because of the Crystal Cathedral influence in that region, the only church in the country in which the "services" for the masses consist of a drive-through ATM where people give money instead of receiving cash? And instead of a receipt, they get a written Blessing. So they can go spend the rest of their lives annoying everyone by saying "I am so blessed." Orange County sucks.

The Angels have a nice stadium. In the City of Anaheim, County of Orange, State of California. They've got this phony rock formation in one corner, and sometimes they have fireworks out there, which is pretty cool.

I went to a game at that stadium once. Angels vs. Yankees, American League playoff. I got there early and stalked the Yankee players, saw Reggie Jackson on the field, Bernie Williams. Joe Torre. I was in heaven. I wore my Yankee T-Shirt, my Yankee hat, and walked proudly through the stadium. Every person there, or probably 99% anyway, were Angels fans. Everyone except me and a really drunk loud guy sitting next to me whose name I no longer remember.

Yankees lost, and I was crushed. Before they lost, early in the game, all the Angels fans pulled out these cheap plastic orange-colored dildo-looking devices and smashed them against other things to make this really obnoxious sound. They've got something called a "Rally Monkey" that they show up on the screen to get the fans to bang their dildos. I mean honestly, a Rally Monkey? What do you expect from a team called the Angels.

But anyway, they were the Anaheim Angels. And guess what everyone thinks of when they heard the name Anaheim? Disneyland. Mickey Mouse. M-I-C K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E.

I guess the Angels got tired of being called Mouseketeers, or the Mickey Mouse Club, and wanted to change their name. So they come up with the bright idea that from now on, they're going to call themselves the Los Angeles Angels.

Now mind you, the Angels are not located in the City of Los Angeles. They are not located in the County of Los Angeles. So it's like they just arbitrarily decided to pick some other city and pretend that's where they were from.

But the thing is, if you got to pick an entire new city, make up a fantasy identity, who would pick Los Angeles? Other than the Dodgers, Los Angeles is a Pit. Why didn't they call themselves the Paris Angels, or the Dublin Angels? But Los Angeles? Los Angeles already has a major league baseball team. They're named the Dodgers. And, unlike the Anaheim Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers will be going to the World Series this year.

I like Mike Scoscia. I wish him the best. A long winter break. Relax. Take a vacation. Because the Mickey Mouse Club is going to get their collective asses kicked by the Bronx Bombers. Or so I predict.

I'm Glad More Men Are Getting Breast Cancer. When It's Only The Women Who Are Doing The Dying, Nobody Seems To Care.

It's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For some reason, the color for this national awareness month is pink. I guess that's because pink is a girl's color, and most of the victims of breast cancer are female. Pink ribbons, folded at the edges, are the symbols for the national breast cancer awareness month. Yogurt lids and box tops and bottle caps and receipts or proofs of purchase are collected and mailed by women from every state to get donations for research. Lots of groups have fund raisers and lunches, wear pink T-shirts and scarfs, sponsor walk-a-thons and run-a-thons to raise money.

The apparent primary goal of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is to raise money for research for a cure, which is well and good for people who have enough money to afford healthcare. All the research in the world isn't going to help women who have no healthcare, can't afford a mammogram, can't afford treatment even if cancer is found. But our country refuses to pay for women to have mammograms, and pay for treatment for breast cancer.

Women always have to do the bake-sale to try to raise money for anything that is important. Do your children need money to buy schoolbooks? The women will have a bakesale. Does your church want to raise money to help the poor and homeless? The women will have a bakesale. We always have to hold bakesales to raise money for ourselves, for our children, education, healthcare, anything of value. We get nothing from society or from our government. They let us die. So we make things and sell things, and try to raise money for the things that really matter.

In an effort to raise money to do research to find a cure for breast cancer, there is a national bakesale conducted by women every year in the entire month of October. You can buy all sorts of things, and if there is a pink ribbon anywhere near the display in a store, it probably means the seller will give a little money to breast cancer research.

When you think of it, it's kind of odd to ask people to contribute money so the medical industry can find a cure for breast cancer, but then most of us won't be able to afford it. It's like we're pitching in to find a cure for rich women. Like the Real Housewives of some upscale exclusive community. We should collect bottle caps to find a cure for them. For ourselves, it probably will be too expensive if they come up with something.
I support the idea of research, free mammograms, free treatment. But the key issues remain undercover, not mentioned in polite society. Breast cancer among women is an epidemic in the U.S. WTF is going on? It is most likely being caused by chemical and poisoned compounds used by U.S. corporations, inserted into the genetically modified food that they sell us, injected into the building materials and carpets and drapes in our homes and the plastics that surround us. So why not spend a few of those bucks that are raised every October to nail down the cause of this radical increase in this disease that is killing so many women. And then once it's nailed down, let's sue the companies who have caused these increases and caused these deaths, and make them pay.

Just for example, millions of women were all but force-fed hormones by their doctors starting at the age of 40. They were told that the hormones would protect them from heart disease, osteoporosis, wrinkles, weight-gain, hot flashes, dowager's hump, and everything else that women dread as part of the aging process. Any woman over the age of 40 who did not take hormones was considered un-american.

Until, that is, it started coming out that instead of helping women, the hormones were killing them. They increased the incidence of breast cancer dramatically, caused heart attacks and strokes, had no effect whatsoever on strengthening bones despite these bullshit claims by the drug dealers. As for the wrinkles, who cares if somebody's got wrinkles if they're dead?

How much money has been paid out to the families of the women who were killed by these hormone drug pushers? Not a penny, as far as I know. Oops. Lots of dead women. Oops. My bad. Nobody cares when it's women who are doing the dying.

In 1950, a U.S. woman had one chance in 20 that she would ever get breast cancer. Today that number has increased to 1 chance in 8. If we keep going at this rate, soon we will be able to guarantee that all U.S. women will get breast cancer. Of course since the Democrats refuse to pass a national healthcare program, many women can't even afford to get a mammogram never mind afford treatment for breast cancer to save their own lives.

During the 40 year period from 1950 to 1990, the rate of breast cancer among white women in the U.S. increased by 53%. Is that an epidemic? I'd say so. That's a 1% increase annually.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women, and the leading cause of death for women between the ages of 40 and 55.

Over 200,000 women in this country are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and at least 50,000 women die every year from breast cancer.

So why is this happening? And exactly what is being done to stop this plague against women in this country?

Most of the research that is done in the field of health is done for the benefit of white men. They are the wealthiest and most powerful group of people in this country since they tend to exclude women and non-whites from well-paying jobs. The white men also tend to have health insurance so they can pay for whatever expensive treatments the medical industry comes up with to prolong the lives of white men.

For example, much of our national health research has been directed at heart disease in white men. And much progress has been made in helping white men with that disease. But the research has traditionally excluded women, and the same types of treatments that save men's lives are not so successful when it comes to women with heart disease.

Black men are 40% more likely than are white men in this country to get cancer. And guess what? They're also generally poorer, have more periods of unemployment, fewer assets, and are less likely to have healthcare. So when they get cancer, they just die.

http://www.fwhc.org/health/xeno.htm

You can buy oreos that have pink on them, and some money will be given from that bake sale for breast cancer research. That's part of our bakesale that we women have to carry on every year because our government won't pay for us to have mammograms, breast cancer treatment, and research to find out what is causing this increase in breast cancer in women in this country.

You know how the politicians keep saying that "we" have the best healthcare system in the world? Well, don't get too excited about that. Maybe the politicians should say that "they" have the best healthcare. For the rest of us, things pretty much suck.

You know how they keep suggesting that "we" will beat cancer in our lifetime, which implies that things are getting better every year in our "war" against cancer. Well, that's just another lie. Like the war on terror, war on drugs. All a lie. None of them are working.

From the National Cancer Institute, the facts show that cancer keeps rising, other than the decrease in lung cancer associated with the reduction in the number of people who smoke. For everybody else, your situation gets bleaker every year.

http://progressreport.cancer.gov/highlights.asp

You can buy a bracelet for your women friends, a breast cancer bracelet, and some of what you spend will be given to some group to do research on breast cancer. Men have bracelets too. Their bracelets are blue. That's a boy's color. They sell bracelets to raise money for research into prostrate cancer. They have their own form of yearly bakesale because the government won't give men free prostrate cancer screenings and treatment, and the government won't do the investigation that is necessary to find out why so many men are getting prostrate cancer. So men have bake sales too. And they die from cancer too.
Here are a few facts from the government's 2007 "progress" report on cancer. http://progressreport.cancer.gov/highlights.asp. That term "progress" suggests a move forward to beat cancer. But the facts don't support that.

"The nation is making progress toward major cancer-related Healthy People 2010 targets."

"Death rates for the four most common cancers (prostate, breast, lung, and colorectal), as well as for all cancers combined, continue to decline."

[Then they talk about a decline in smoking].

"The nation is losing ground in other important areas that demand attention." See that? We're going in the wrong direction. The headline is that the nation is "making progress," but the facts are that things are getting worse. There is actually an increase in most cancers in our country. That's not what I would call progress.

"The incidence rates of cancer of the liver, pancreas, kidney, esophagus, and thyroid have continued to rise, as have the rates of new cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, myeloma, and childhood cancers. The incidence rates of cancer of the brain and bladder and melanoma of the skin in women, and testicular cancer in men, are rising."

"Lung cancer death rates in women continue to rise, but not as rapidly as before. Death rates for cancer of the esophagus and thyroid in men, as well as of the liver, are increasing."

Poor people and black people have both the highest rates of cancer and the highest death rates for cancer:

"Unexplained cancer-related health disparities remain among population subgroups. For example, Blacks and people with low socioeconomic status have the highest rates of both new cancers and cancer deaths."

While breast cancer rates have risen dramatically since 1950 (with a radical 15% drop when the medical industry stopped telling women to use hormone drugs), fewer women get mammograms. Of course they're expensive, and our nation refuses to provide women with free mammograms and breast cancer treatment to save their lives. Like I said, I'm glad more men are getting breast cancer, because when it's only the women doing the dying, nobody seems to care.

"Mammography rates dropped slightly between 2003–2005, especially for women 50–64."

One of the common deadly cancers in this country is colon cancer. The most effective screening for that is a colonoscopy, recommended by most doctors for patients at 50, and every 5 years thereafter. That test costs well over $1,000, and most people cannot afford it, and do not have insurance that will cover it. So people die from colon cancer because our country refuses to provide all our citizens with free colonoscopies and treatment for colon cancer:

"Screening for colorectal cancer remains low, despite its proven effectiveness, though use is increasing. " Notice the tone of this statement, as if the author can't really figure out why more people aren't doing this, given its proven effectiveness. Psst: most people can't afford it, that's why.

You can buy a watch, a breast cancer watch, if you want to count the minutes until you or your sister or wife or mother or daughter will likely become another victim to this disease. Or die from it. But don't ask the government to pay for your mammogram, or your mother's mammogram, or their breast cancer treatment. Don't ask the politicians to get up off their fat corrupt lazy asses and do some real investigations into what is causing these increases in cancer in our country, so that we can protect future generations. Our government gives all our money to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and to war. So buy your breast cancer watch, send in the boxtops, save the yogurt lids, hope for a miracle but don't bet on one, and count off the minutes until another woman dies from this disease.

Chris Hedges - Empire of Illusion

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Chris Hedges is a brilliant writer. His book "Christian Fascists" was a stunning and comprehensive indictment of the right-wing religions in the U.S. and their tactics and goals of destroying democracy and replacing it with a theocratic fascist system. He's a former reporter with the New York Times who left under pressure because of his outspoken opposition to the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq. He currently writes at Truthdig, http://www.truthdig.com/ and is the author of many books. His most recent is called Empire of Illusion, and he's been interviewed by several members of the progressive media, one excerpt being below by Laura Flanders at GritTV. GritTV is broadcast on Freespeech tv and is available online at the following link: http://www.freespeech.org/grittv

Laura Flanders is a journalist and is host of a daily current events TV show called GRITtv. She is also the author of several books, and has written articles which have appeared in The Nation, In These Times, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, and ZNet. Noted journalists Alexander and Patrick Cockburn are her uncles.

Excerpt from one review by Brian Bethune in Maclane's magazine, a Canadian newsweekly:

"[Chris Hedges] is not likely to win a lot of new friends with his latest work, Empire of Illusion (Knopf). The “illusion” part of the title is made clear in Hedges’ savage assault on celebrity/pop culture.... [and discusses] how Americans (and, increasingly, the rest of the world) are “bombarded with cant and spectacle” that robs them of “the intellectual and linguistic tools to separate illusion from truth.” Celebrity culture is one of images and sound bites, he writes, one that both drives and is enabled by, functional illiteracy. (He cites studies estimating the illiterate and semi-literate proportion of the U.S. and Canadian populations to be about 42 per cent.)"
....
"[T]he “illusion” [of celebrity and pop culture] serves the other half of his title, the “empire,” the corporate and military forces that he believes profit from the impoverishment, moral and financial, of his countrymen. It prevents Americans from seeing what is done in their name or even what is done to them."

"What seems to truly drive Hedges’ rage is his conviction that no republic has ever survived the acquisition of empire, and that his own will be no exception. The U.S. is in a death spiral, he believes, inextricably trapped in other nation’s lives and in “a culture of illusion that is, at its core, a culture of death—it will die and leave little of value behind.” Remarkable, bracing and highly moral, Empire of Illusion is Hedges’ lament for his nation.