This image was captured by Randy L. Rasmussen of The Oregonian in Portland on November 17, 2011

A New York City police officer deploys a chemical weapon directly into the face of an unarmed female protester at point-blank range at SW Yamhill, between the JP Morgan Chase bank and Pioneer Courthouse Square. People gathered on the east side of the Steel bridge earlier in the morning to demonstrate in support of the Occupy movement, on the day known as N17. Several people were arrested and the march continued over the lower span of the bridge into downtown, where a rally was planned. Later in the day people were arrested in a Wells Fargo branch downtown for trying to withdraw their own money.

Is this the kind of democracy and freedoms our founding father’s wanted for Americans when signing the constitution?

The history of the United States is rich with progress, innovation and providing freedoms that most other countries around the world only dream of. At least that’s what we were naively taught to believe growing up.

In light of the obvious and blatant stripping of civil liberties and atrocities that have been picked out from a plethora of injustices on Occupy Wall Street protesters, and since the birth of this nation, none has so greatly affected the very state of our rights as human beings as the founders that spoke to our indelible rights, that all men are equal.

But in the face of such a highly held creed, Thomas Jefferson, while a noble gentleman of his time and with great conviction helped write the constitution with a feverish and righteous tone, all the while though he owned slaves. The act in itself speaks volumes of his endevour between stating what was should be held as right and just and actually living up to that modo is a much more stark contrast of reality looking back.

It’s in the hypocrisy of Jefferson’s deeds that partly shaped the foundation to which we as Americans hold this country in its highest regard, while underneath the sacred words within the constitution lay a discord of contradictions to  a piece of great literature which still holds to this day worthy of being arguably, one of the most profound statements in the history of humanity. While our sense of historical facts were brought about by an incredibly intelligent man seemingly whose sense of moral justice was keen, he was a politician, a man of power, and his actions spoke a much ominous tone.

While we find ourselves in troubling times still where oppression and intolerance exist, the constitution since its inception, has tried to speak to people’s sense of equality and ideas of right and wrong and to choose a moral path, and rightly so.

Our country was founded on the principles where we sought to rise above the iniquity of tyranny and live as free individuals pursuing that happiness and certain rights that were afforded to us by our founding fathers — and pray tell, in peace.

We’ve been trying to achieve this since the age of enlightenment with the writing of the Bible — our first attempt at trying to understand our world, its people and universe. And even with its juvenile and naively arrogant summation of how everything that came to be in the universe, those words, although contradictory and damaging in many aspect, are still held in high esteemed to this day. Indeed there is no account for rationality when people believe there’s a kingdom of gold and an eternal life of bliss that await after their death.

However, since we as mere mortals are faced with the challenging task to seek that moral high ground, with the written word from our historical perspective, we still find ourselves in the midst of chaos; and at the hand of the most powerful and corrupt people in America — politicians and corporations — the two are uniquely synonymous.

Does anyone think that the constitution really means anything today, especially in light of the police in combat gear inflicting violence on peaceful protesters, and upon journalist, and breaking every basic right that are afforded to Americans by the constitution? The answer is evident.

While Rosa Parks no longer could no longer bear to be pushed aside and treated like as a second class citizen, never more to be sitting behind ‘whites only’ on a bus, her bravery set the civil rights movement in a forward direction for all Americans. The horrific acts that followed that were set upon those who stood in the way of that status quo, however, were met with violence and in many cases, death.

To rise against oppression and injustice is our most ambitious and courageous act that any human being could aspire to achieve. And in those noble moments of standing ones ground in the face of blatant cruelty from our fellow man, whether they’re dressed in police uniform or in a politicians suit and tie, makes it that much more profound a gesture to resist their shortsighted heavy hand of injustice upon peaceful protesters; and yet again still, though the date different, the circumstances dissimilar, the very same brutality sweeps over a movement that challenges corruption at its highest level.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement are seen, have been heard and most likely will continue to do so until they feel something is done to instill a common thread of social justice to those who saw fit to erode the very fabric of this nation. That something, is what leads the fight to lessens the oppressive nature that has been disproportionately reigned down upon middle class Americans — the careless hand of greed from wall street reaching to many politicians in Washington.

Yes, something needs to be done, and nothing less is a victory. That something is a change that doesn’t favor the most rich, or the corporations that are in the pockets of politicians each bought and paid for from campaign trail up.

While protesting is our basic fundamental rights as Americans, we shout until our throats sore, yet still heard, we lock arms and sit knowing full well the civil disobedience we are partaking in, and we return again to a sweep of raids on the public parks to which we proudly hold our signs of injustice. All this, so the 1% can see and hear just how pissed off every single one of the people who occupy wall street feel about what wall street and our government in Washington did to our dignity and trust — and more so, to our entire country.

It is indeed our dignity and trust that they have stripped away for profits sake when they ‘lawfully’, although unethically, sold off chunks of our mortgages as derivatives to buyers who were eager to buy from sellers who were eager to sell at any expense – and, with the law on their side and no penalties whatsoever enforced. Surely nothing illegal had occurred, but rather something much worse – selling out the American people.

Wall Street bankers, financial firms, mortgage companies and the US government was instrumental of the fiasco that led us into this economic collapse. They got us into this mess, they should be held accountable to get us out of it. Yet there have been no one convicted, much less charged, for the damaging and criminal nature that brought us to economic turmoil.

And there’s a reason for this.

For big corporations, government doesn’t work the same for everyone else outside of it. No, there are privileges given because of manipulations from monies that are greased into the palms of many politicians to persuade their vote in one direction or another — which in turn from law makers (congress) are protected from being penalized.

Sadly, it’s money that rules The United States Congress, and has for quite some time. But now, thousands of Americans who lost their jobs because of the effect Wall Street, they now feel the brunt of what was done by unscrupulous decision making policies in Washington, and the greed from Wall Street corporations, securities firms and banks which were carried out and driven by corporate psychopaths.

There wasn’t just one thing that got us into this economic mess, but a series of actions that set the economic collapse in motion, starting as far back as the Reagan era. The deregulation’s that were enacted by Reagan saw fit to strip away laws that govern transactions that would take monies out of the pocket of the most rich in the nation.

Lobbyist have millions at their disposal to coerce politicians votes, and with that, every ounce of ethics fly out the window and the almighty dollar trumps any shred of moral compass, hands down.

Bill Clinton signed into legislation, laws that would further cut regulations, which gave more power to banks and more money to the most affluent with tax breaks. But we didn’t begin to see the full impact from those deregulation’s until George W. Bush took office and made the most drastic cuts in policies that governed regulations of wall street, the banks, and mortgage lenders. Bush was the home run for his team that won the world series, in terms of making money hand over fist that compromised the entire economic playing field.

Bush’s statement that “every person in American should own a home”, just a few years late, sparked the great foreclosure debacle in history. From his words, and his singing into law, with the help of Ben Burnake cutting interests rates and allowing sub-prime loans to people who in fact wanted to have ‘The American Dream’ of owning a home, mixed for a toxic concoction that put this nation in economic peril.

To that, George W. Bush was singularly responsible for putting this nation in crisis for illegally implementing a war in the middle east for the “War on Terrorism”, which cost this country $1 Trillion dollars, and counting.

The profound and adverse effect that deregulation created from the federal reserved all the way down to loan officers and mortgage lenders knowing full well that these sub-prime loans were a bad deal, although the loans were almost guaranteed that anyone could buy a home, in actuality they couldn’t afford it. But that didn’t stop anyone from getting a house, and the mortgage industry was a willing participant.

The ‘no income qualifying’ loans were spewing out at a rate none has ever before seen. But little did the buyer know or was made aware, that these shady loans would force their financial hand in several years after because of the A.R.M., adjustable rate mortgages, and ‘No Income Verification Stated Loans’. Both had a devastating impact on buyers because in fact no income was necessary to get a loan, and anyone could just “state” their income and on their word, mortgage lenders would finance their loan for a home.

To that, their mortgage began to increase yearly exponentially, until the amount was such that they could no longer afford to pay the mortgage — their debt to income ratio was incredibly disproportionate, making it impossible to pay the exorbitant payment each month — hence the millions of foreclosures that followed.

There were many who were collectively responsible for the millions of foreclosures, the millions of jobs that were lost from of unscrupulous deeds and laws that didn’t protect consumers. But surely, none of this would have happened had regulations been kept in place and the ethics of people saw beyond the profits that they could only greedily presume they would make for themselves.

It was evident government wasn’t going to do anything to help the middle class in their crisis, yet big corporations got their bail out in times of their financial crisis. It was a foregone conclusion that they’d be bailed out by our government, since they were the ones corporate millions of dollars were going to. One hand washes the other.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a testament to just how despondent tens of thousands of Americans see what the corruption and deregulation has done to this country, and wanting to protest to those inequalities in our country that the very people we put into office, turned their backs on us when we needed them the most. It was clear that politicians in Washington were no longer working for the people, but rather for corporations.

Former Rep. Alan Grayson talks at Brave New Films on November 12, 2011 about Occupy Wall Street and how they have brought the political conversation in America back to where it should be.

There’s a seedy elitist political underbelly that doesn’t want OWS seen or heard, and they’re doing everything possible to meet that objective.

New York’s Mayor Bloomberg and other mayors across the country are at the head of showing us how politically corrupt they are and how they, without any provocation, are stripping the constitutional rights away from the protesters at Occupy Wall Street New York, and many other municipalities.

Mayor Bloomberg’s cronies no doubt are tired of seeing and hearing the OWS protest and because he and his top 1 percent ‘buddies’ are making a stench over OWS movement, their profit persuasions have put a wrench into his next election if something’ isn’t done; and that something is Bloomberg’s enforcing his brutality upon OWS protesters, for in his mind, it is his city, and his police and [he] will do almost anything, and has, to rid the city of OWS protesters.

Keith Olbermann has a special comment about Mayor Bloomberg.

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparalleled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

The New York Times reported that “New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers” covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding.

This incident took place at UC Davis.

The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests.

The mainstream media was declaring continually “OWS has no message”. Frustrated, Naomi Wolf reporter of the guardian.co.uk simply asked the OWS protesters. She began soliciting online stating, “What is it you want?” Answers came in from Occupy in the first 15 minutes, she received 100 answers.

Naomi recounts what some of the OWS protesters wrote back to her.

• No. 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics.

Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process.

• No. 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation.

With the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

• No. 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

But despite Occupy Wall Street voicing what exactly it is that they want from Wall Street and our government, something sinister was being planned quietly behind their backs.

It turns out that the Department of Homeland Security were coordinating a violent crackdown on OWS protesters on a conference call to several city mayors. One of the 18 leaders who sat in on the call was Portland Mayor Sam Adams. The calls, according to Adams, were organized “to share information about the occupying encampments around the country.” He described the calls to the New York Times as “check-ins to share information and advice on how various cities were handling the demonstrations.”

According to journalist Rick Ellis at the Examiner, Ellis spoke with a Justice official, who claims each of the Occupy raid actions were coordinated with help from not only Homeland Security, but the FBI, and other federal agencies.

For the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

It’s unsurprising that such coordination would demand federal oversight, but it’s also deeply disturbing that a federal agency may have participated in the plot, since the very reason Occupy exists is to address the corruption of the government.

An official said that while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement.

According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules.

Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.

Aerial View at US Davis, CA

Why on earth though would Congress advise violent militarized reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the “scandal” of presidential contender Newt Gingrich’s having been paid $1.8m for a few hours’ “consulting” to special interests.

The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies’ profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that would send anyone to jail.

Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware before Occupy itself is of what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If  OWS protesters are seeking to legislate away lobbyists’ privileges to earn boundless fees on the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can’t suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, would be opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, well anyone who saw those eminent threats would certainly call out the troops on stopping those advances.

There have been many who have voiced their disdain about OWS and how its “annoyance” to their daily lives, and one such  Larry M. Elkin of Nyack News and Views and and Founder of Palisades Hudson Financial Group stating, “The Occupy “movement” was never more than a tiny fringe, hyped by breathless coverage of “hundreds” or “thousands” of demonstrators in a park or on a bridge. Tight camera shots and organized shouting can make a small crowd look imposing on a TV screen, as any Persian Gulf theocracy already knows.”

Is it any wonder that a snide and elitist comment would be coming from someone within the financial sector?

Scenes like this below do not look like a “tiny fringe” when they’re taking place around the entire globe on a daily basis.

Over 30,000 People Rally in New York City (NYPD estimated 32,500), including organized contingents of workers, students, and other members of “the 99%”

To be clear, the OWS protesters are in a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president and Mayors of major OWS protests, sent violent, organized suppression against the people they are supposed to represent.

Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.

Our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us. Do everything in your power to protect yourself from harm, your property and your freedoms.

There is no question — democracy throughout the US is being threatened. The right to assemble, the rights of the free press, the right of free speech along with legislators making it more difficult to vote, are stripping away the very core of our democratic society. It’s imperative that we continue on this forward momentum with the Occupy Wall Street movement until we the people have a voice again in this nation that we call home.

And the political and corporate corruption continues.

New information was just disclosed about the Federal Reserve and the big banks who fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret.

Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy.

Occupy Wall St.

Basically the banks are stealing our futures. We pay them so we can go to school. We pay them for shelter. We die in wars for them. They destroy our environment, throw us out our homes and they control the government. We can not rely on government to regulate them because they are the government. We live in an oligarchy. The good news is more and more people realize this everyday. We are rising up to resist the illegitimate corporate controlled government.

Details of upcoming actions coming soon. We are just getting started.

The revolution continues worldwide!

The threat President Obama made by stating he “could not guarantee payment” to those who are currently receiving Social Security checks was the most vicious ignoble utterance I have ever heard from an American president. Economic terrorism has been a tool the Democrats and Republicans have used for generations, but Obama is demonstrating to the American people just how far he will go to terrorize the public and place blame on the Republicans, and in the meanwhile, scare retiree’s, Veterans and millions of people on disability.

Coercion of this sort from Obama trying to hold Republicans responsible for the debt ceiling possibly not being raised, is disingenuous at best, and trying to put the most vulnerable out on the streets and in harms way — for that, President Barack Obama is not worthy to continue holding office.

This kind of pompous behavior to stoop so low as to use grandma and people with disabilities as his political weapons, is a travesty that almost crosses the line of  criminality. My thoughts about Obama previous to this grand standing of deceit was one of respect and admiration how he seemingly was trying to stop playing the “political game,” that he’s spoken of in Washington so many times.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; he’s a politician, and one from the great state of Illinois, where they turn out political felons at the drop of every election — he has added himself to that list. To make matter worse, he has misled the American public into believing that there will be “no money left in the coffers.”  This is absolutely false! It’s either a blatant lie, or Obama’s understanding of how the Treasury Department deals with a crisis of this nature, is seriously off kilter from the point of a person who should know exactly how monies are delegated through the US Treasury Department.

The only event that will occur on August 3rd if there is no increase in the debt ceilingis the premature launch of QE3 to cover payments. QE3 stands for Quantitative Easing (round) 3. Meaning, the Federal Reserve can stimulate the economy using any number of tools. Quantitative easing is just one of them.

Social Security has had safeguards for many years, which are still now in place. Those who are receiving Social Security, have paid into it from the taxes when they were working, not only do the payroll tax receipts go into the Social Security Trust Fund, those receipts must be invested in US Government bonds.

The Social Security Trust Fund holds about $2.5 Trillion worth of US government bonds. When those bonds are needed, they are redeemed to cover the monies for 70+ million Social  Security checks that go out every single month, and will be issued by the US Treasury. The money owed which is under the debt ceiling will automatically go down.

In the event of a situation like this, the Treasury will redeem those bonds in the amount necessary to cover the Social Security monies necessary to pay everyone who is receiving benefits.

Obama didn’t take the time to pause and consider that he and his economic advisors have crossed a “Compassionate Gap” into the Land of personal ambition. When this kind of behavior from a president strikes fear, and rather than assuring our nation and its most vulnerable that they won’t be tossed aside without regard for their livelihood, all for the sake of a political agenda, it speaks volumes of that president’s character.

To bail out Wall Street, which partly put us in this economic turmoil, and to continue to spend $16 billion a month in the Middle East, and then have a President of The United States use his constituents and American citizens as political puppets to coerce the republican party into raising the debt ceiling with his threats, is tyranny at its most unfathomable state of impropriety.

For that in my opinion, not only did Mr. Obama not have the foresight to see that what he said, may have lost the 70 million plus votes in his next election from those who are on Social Security, Veterans and many others who rely on Social Security monies, he has lost all credibility as a ethical and just politician in the eye of every American who is smart enough to see how transparent his political tactics were, and by doing such, has potentially reduced his expectancy in office to only one term.

If he’s lucky, he won’t find himself facing impeachment from lying to millions of Americans, and coercing the United States Senate.

The only thing more important to a con artist than perfecting a con is perfecting a total lack of conscience. Con artists and the word “psychopaths” are synonymous.

What does the average con artist look like? Despite what you may think, he isn’t always a shady-looking character. A con artist is an expert at looking however he needs to look. If the con involves banking or investments, the con artist will wear a snappy suit. If it involves home improvement scams, he’ll show up wearing well-worn work clothes. Even the basic assumption that the con is a “he” is incorrect: there are plenty of con women too.

You might think you can spot a con artist because he’s someone you instinctively “don’t trust.” But the term con artist is short for confidence artist – they gain your confidence just long enough to get their hands on your money. They can be very charming and persuasive. A good con artist can even make you believe he is really an old friend you haven’t seen in years.

Con artists do share certain characteristics, however. Even the best con can only go on for so long before people start getting suspicious. For that reason, con artists tend to move frequently, most times moving out of state or the country. They may have a job that allows this, or they might claim to have such a job.

Railroad worker, carnival worker and traveling salesman and even so called business owners are all parts con artists play to cover up their constant relocations.

It would be impo­ssible to catalogue every con, because con artists are inventive. While many cons are simply variations on ones that are hundreds of years old, new technologies and laws give con artists the opportunity to create original scams. Many cons tend to fall into a few general categories, however: street cons, business cons, Internet cons, loan cons and home improvement cons.

If you suspect a con artist, there are  a few resources made available to you at your finger tips. Calling the city or your local police or FBI agency and ask if they have their name on file. They may in fact be using a fake name, but many time if they are on record, they’ll show up.

You can also call and obtain a DMV print out of this would be con artist if he drives a vehicle registered under his name. Finger prints are also a way to verify someone’s identity, although you have to be very crafty in gathering their prints and have them analyzed by a crime lab, which is relatively easy to do if you suspect this person may be a con artist.

These do not guarantee that you’ll find out anything about this person, but it’s at least other ways of trying to gain evidence against them if you suspect them of being a con artist.

To better protect yourself from would be con artist, if you feel something isn’t right, or you have any suspicion at all, question those feelings and stay on top of the game so you don’t fall victim to these predators.

Where exactly did someone come up with the idea that putting toxic chemicals in our food was safe? Not only knowing full well that these toxic chemicals were harmful, they’ve endorsed the very toxic products from which they’ve cleared for consumption by millions of consumers, and with the permission granted from the government to do so.

The FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, is the most under regulated federal agency in America, especially in light of all the defunct and harmful products it passes to be marketed to the public. You thought that maybe the economic crisis that prompted foreclosures because of the mortgage industry not being regulated was bad?

There’s a reason why they call it the Food and (Drug) Administration; the two words are synonymous in that there are drugs, and, many toxic chemicals are legally added to our foods. Not just some of our commercially grown and processed foods, but all foods that are not certified organic, hormone free, non-genetically Modified (GMO), antibiotic free and steroid free are unequivocally ladened with modified or added poisonous chemicals in the food we eat.

Unless you are aware of these chemicals and genetic modifications done to the food your eating, your ingesting these foods on a daily basis. After all, we need to eat to survive, and the food you just bought at the grocery store or at a fast food restaurant, there’s no getting away with not having these chemicals in our bodies, which are slowly killing us one bit at a time.

The FDA legally endorse food companies that inject these chemicals into our food from farm to store which are directly responsible and have been linked to degenerative diseases, food borne illness and thousands of deaths of people who have consumed or used the particular products that the FDA considered as “safe”.

The number of lawsuits against the FDA is overwhelming. There are millions who are affected adversely because of the food additives that the FDA legally allows food companies to put in the food and products they sell, as well as the many food borne illnesses that can occur because there is little regulation from the FDA at farms and slaughter houses. 

Stephanie Smith, 22.

One such incident was of a woman who consumed a hamburger her mother ate. Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead.

Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states. 

Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen. 

What is very alarming is that the FDA legally allows food companies like Kraft, Nabisco and a myriad of other food companies to secretly disguise chemical additives in foods labels as something entirely different, and not just a few kinds of foods either.

The grocery stores are lined with literally tons of toxic chemicals in the products they sell, but you wouldn’t know by some of the wording used on the ingredients list like “natural flavor”, which is a chemical disguised as natural, which  is actually MSG or some other additive that the FDA allows food companies to secretly list on their food items and in body products as “natural”, “spices”, and a litany of other deceptive labeling.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer commonly added to Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and processed meats to give the food a seemingly more flavor and taste. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified MSG as a food ingredient that’s “generally recognized as safe,” the use of MSG remains controversial.

The FDA has classified Vioxx as safe, which was a pain killer, which was recalled and has been linked to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, with Consumer Reports stating that they estimate Vioxx Caused 27,785 deaths!

This subject hits very close to home as I was prescribed Vioxx which led me to the emergency room with heart attacks symptoms. There was an irregularity on the EKG, though up until that point, I have had no problems with my heart. If my incident was investigated further, in my opinion, it would have led the Vioxx being the culprit.

Clearly Merck who was the drug maker was at fault for creating such a deadly drug, but what’s more frightening is that not only did the FDA pass the drug as “generally recognized as safe,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not require a Vioxx recall; Merck voluntarily pulled Vioxx from the market on September 30, 2004.

The list goes on and on about the deception from the FDA and it’s ‘above the law’ stance when considering that there are protections in place that make is nearly impossible to sue the FDA and win a court case against them because of agency protections from the government from such lawsuits.

Since 1972, inspections conducted by the FDA declined 81 percent. Since 2003, the number of FDA field staff dropped by 12 percent, and between 2003 and 2006 federal inspections dropped by 47 percent, according to analysis by the CSPI, an advocacy group dedicated to food safety. And a recent congressional study revealed that the agency inspects less than 1 percent of the U.S. food supply, leaving the food industry to police itself.

In the space between farm and table – at processing plants, where food is handled and sorted – is where many experts believe our best chance exists to catch food borne pathogens.

There has not been a coordinated system, nor any government oversight by the Food and Drug Administration to place safeguards to ensure that our food isn’t potentially deadly.

“FDA not only has insufficient resources, but it also has some major gaps in its authority,” said Sandra Eskin, director of the Food Safety Campaign at Pew Charitable Trusts.

An unwanted side effect of those gaps: 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths are caused by food borne illness in the U.S. each year.

This past Tuesday’s passage of a new law called, S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act gives the FDA more power to prevent outbreaks – a change that was hailed by food safety advocates.

Sadly though, this does not address the allowance of toxic additives to our foods labeled as something that has nothing to do with what is actually in the product. The FDA allows food companies to legally mis-label their food products, with no penalties, so that they will stay on the shelves longer, and seemingly taste better, no matter the consequences, which are documented by peer review journals as being dangerous to our health by being exposed to toxic additives that are added to our food.

There are over 14,000 man-made chemicals added to our American food supply today. Food additives are not natural nutrition for humans or their pets. Children are suffering the most from food additives because they are exposed to food chemicals from infancy, and human bodies were not meant to be exposed to the degree of chemicals and food additives found in most all our foods.

Toxic build-up / exposure have been linked to serious diseases and developmental disorders, including:

* Cancer, Cardio-vascular diseases,  Immune system diseases,  Hormonal imbalances.

* Childhood and reproductive health problems: ADHD, hyperactivity, learning disability, autism. May cause reproductive damage.

* Neurological disorders / brain disease: 25% of the chemicals in the environment are neurotoxins linked to increased incidence of brain disease. Other related symptoms: memory lapses, “brain fog”, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia,

“The body naturally manufactures fat in abundance to incarcerate and absorb chemicals and toxins that accumulate over time. As you cleanse the body, one can expect fat and inches to be substantially reduced.” – J. K.Paulsen, M.D. – a Bariatric Physician.

Looking out for specific foods to avoid is key. Studies show that eating just one sausage a day can significantly raise your risk of bowel cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease, according to an analysis by the World Cancer Research Fund. Eating 1.8 ounces of processed meat daily – about one sausage or three pieces of bacon – raises the likelihood of the cancer by a fifth. Processed meats may also trigger cancer in the prostate, lung, stomach and esophagus.

Processed meats include bacon, ham, pastrami, salami and hot dogs. Sausages and hamburgers can also fall into the category if they have been preserved with salt or chemical additives. The analysis also found that red meat raises the risk of bowel cancer, but to a lesser extent. Processing raises levels of cancer-causing chemicals called N-nitroso compounds, making bacon, sausages and other processed meats more deadly.

The World Cancer Research Fund recommends people avoid eating all processed meats.

According to estimates, if everyone cut down on red and processed meat, one in 10 cases of bowel cancer could be prevented. (Ref.: Daily Mail March 31, 2008 World Cancer Research Fund: Food Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective November 2007)

Nearly everything we consume unless certified organic has pesticides, hormones, steroids, antibiotics, heavy metals, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, food coloring, sulfites, nitrites, nitrates and a vast amount of other toxic additives.

The following is an online list of 45 additives having the functional class “preservative,” from the Codex General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA) Online Database.

Mind you that these are only a short list of just preservatives, not including all the other toxic additives put in our food.

Rewind fifty years ago and children’s lives were much simpler and filled with more promise of their parents dreams. Together sitting down for dinner and talking about the day, instilling a bond between parents and children which underlined what family represented if only a little time spent together on what really was important – family.

The days of a less stressful life where there weren’t any school shootings, violent video games that children too easily emulate, where the idea of walking down the tree lined covered street that you’re lucky not to be gunned down by a stray bullet by the rival neighborhood gang. 

There was a time that I’m sure many people from a generation or two ago remember where their time wasn’t consumed with being in front of a TV sixteen hours a day without a parent being home and wouldn’t be until after work where children are free to go unsupervised with no other role model than The Power Rangers or a violent video game, or worse, the streets of good old USA.

In our busy day to day world, parents have almost lost all sense of what parenting is, not necessarily because they want to, but the choices that their faced with having to pay the bills, rent and other expenses and long work hours keep them away from the ones who need them most in those formative years, their children. This has over-shined the need to look after their own children, disregarding the necessary principles of right and wrong, the ideals of respect, the concept of self worth and instilling a sense of moral compass, and, if the parent isn’t at home and know exactly where their kids are, then there’s a lack of accountability on the parent’s part.

Not all parents lack this parental innate sense, but seemingly there’s a gap left with many kids of teaching these important things factors in a child’s life, and the need to just try to survive and put food on the table working more hours can’t be the entire reasoning behind some parents irresponsible conduct.

It’s because of this disconnect that children have found other sources to fill their time, and many times, it’s to their detriment, especially when they head outside where it’s much too easy for a child to find some kind of trouble to get into in a concrete jungle amidst predators lurking around every corner to steal a child’s innocence.

There surely is no wonder why there is more teen violence now than ever before in our nations history. Children far too often do not have a role model to look up to, and many times children and teens wind up being associated with gangs not because of violence that may look appealing from what they’ve seen in movies and video games glorify, but it’s the sense of family and feeling of kinship they get from being a part of a gang.

Children want to be accepted more than anything, and being a part of a community gives a sense of worth and belonging, something they may not getting at home. Truly the sense of community is lost when the only place a child can feel  acceptance is on the streets and in a gang.

Is it a wonder why these children have turned into criminals many times repeating the crimes over and over again, even after being in front of a judge more than a few times? Clearly they haven’t learned their lesson, and more people are being subjected to these violent crimes when harsh punishments by the courts are needed and aren’t imposed.

There’s a myriad of reasons why kids are in this predicament, and because of parents not raising their kid emphasizing on spending the quality time they need and deserve as children all too often a single parent working double shifts, along with not learning any parenting skills themselves because of their own upbringing, mixed together with a court system that is overwhelmed with teen violence, it’s continuous vicious circle which continues at the peril of our children and society as a whole.

Indeed psychopaths are seemingly being raised in this generation, where there is many times a lack of respect for others, no responsibility taken for children and teens actions due to the numbing effect from years and years being plopped down in front of a TV a.k.a ‘The Babysitter’, watching violent movies, seeing gratuitous sex at a young age, the internet where absolutely anything can be found, and, playing violent video games all without any parental guidance. It’s no wonder these children have lost all sense of self worth, compassion and respect for others.

Children emulate what they see, and when they see violence, they repeat it. History has proven this theory. When before the invent of video games or horrific violent movies in history did you ever hear of a child gunning down and killing other kids in school?

The sad outcome society is faced with is a kid that has no remorse for the violent crimes they commit because that’s what he’s been brought up to see for years upon years. School shootings, teen stabbings, defiling of property with graffiti, bullying and other crimes and violence isn’t because of good parenting obviously, it’s due to a lack of any parenting at all. This is what begets a child being raised unknowingly into becoming a psychopath. A psychopath is a person with no remorse from the violent actions they inflict.

In many cities, there are programs in community centers that allow teens to partake in activities that are sponsored by the city where children can find productive resources that allow them to participate with other teens in sports, mechanical repair, homemaking, and other resourceful and fun activities that facilitate a sense of community among those children which keep them off the streets and give them the opportunity to spend their time learning social skills and other skills that can better their lives with alliances from the city which they live.

Surely the responsibility of raising kids in a nurturing and safe environment is a necessary global task that everyone should be involved with, not only to foster a sense of community within a child’s own neighborhood, but to allow children the benefit where they can grow to their fullest potential in life, which will allow them to become positive role models to other children helping them to find a much needed place in this world.

Contact your city’s community outreach center, Big Brothers Big Sisters or your local county commissioners office and find out ways where you can become a positive role model for a child, and help out where you can, for surely there is no better legacy to leave on this planet than helping a child who needs it most.

We all know that iPad is an eye-catching product for all gadget lovers . It is full of good features but there are few features in iPad which you might not like. There is a mix reaction about Apple iPad, positive and negative. I would suggest that before purchasing iPad , it is better to know about it’s Pros and Cons .

Pros of Apple iPad:

•10 hour battery life

•Built in Speaker and microphone

•Awesome App Store

•Interface is very much alike to iPhone/iPod Touch

•User-friendly to read newspaper, eBooks, magazines

•Uses home Wi-Fi

•Supports third party apps without modification

Movies – The iPad not only allows easy viewing of full-length movies, but with the Netflix app, users can watch (legally) almost any movie available. If users already have a Netflix account, the extra feature is free.

Some of the drawbacks of the iPad:

•No built in Web Cam – Although critics complained at the pre-release about this lack, Apple(r) did nothing to fix the problem, instead offering a “Camera-Connection Kit” that costs an extra $30.

•No USB support.

•Apps look funny – many of the available apps were made for the iPhone, and haven’t yet been adjusted for the much bigger screen on the iPad. They have to be reworked to fit, and that takes a lot of time. Meanwhile, there are fewer apps available to those that already own the iPad.

• It doesn’t multi-task.

• It is a fingerprint magnet. For something so elegant, it sure does look pretty grimy after a few minutes of use.

• No Drag and Drop file management

• It is heavier than you think it is. Using it as an e-book reader can be difficult if you are planning to hold it like a book for prolonged periods of time.

•No SD card reader built-in.

• Typing on the keyboard can be hard to get used to. You have to set it down to place your hands on the keyboard, which is awkward and odd. You may not be able to compose long e-mails on it.

•It does not support Flash and tens of thousands of  web sites use Flash. They won’t be able to quickly change to HTML5 like some media sites have.

• It will not replace your notebook or iPhone. You won’t be able to produce a lot on this. It is meant for you to consume media like music and video. Producing things like video, photo, or written text is not really the best experience.

•GPS is not supported completely .

• It is expensive for something you’re not sure you need yet. There is always the chance that Apple will lower the price in a few months like they did with the iPhone. There is also a very good chance that a camera will be installed in the next installation of the device. So if video calling is important to you, you might want to wait.

• It is not a high definition experience. High resolution but not HD.

• You cannot annotate your books from the iTunes store. So if you are reading a book you bought through Apple, you can’t take notes on the book or mark passages like you can on the Kindle.

•You won’t able to connect iPad to TV because there are no HDMI output.
 
So although the iPad has begun its young life with heaps of expectations and certainly lots of potential, its future is uncertain. With Apple’s propensity for putting a high price on everything and its paranoia with regards to anything open-source, the iPad, although cool and new, might not be as cool when the competition releases its product that has flash, has a web cam built-in, and has a price tag significantly smaller.

Steven –

The Fourth of July is especially dear to my family. For us, it is not just our nation’s birthday. It is the day Michelle and I became parents 12 years ago. And I can’t wait to watch the fireworks with Malia on her birthday tonight, as we do every year.

As we celebrate the profound pride of being American, today is a time to honor the women and men in our armed forces, whose immeasurable bravery and sacrifice have made our country what it is today.

That sacrifice is shared with husbands and wives, with sons and daughters, with fathers and mothers, who are asked to wait at home as their loved ones protect our nation. Their heroism, too, has helped pave the path of our freedom.

Even before we moved into the White House, Michelle was a champion for those military families. She has witnessed their struggles, and she has made it her personal mission to fight for them. On this Fourth of July, she recorded a personal message, commemorating our nation’s birthday and paying tribute to these families.

Please take a minute to watch Michelle’s video — and join us as we honor our military families here and abroad:

http://my.barackobama.com/July4th

From all of us, happy Independence Day.

Thank you, and may God bless America.

President Barack Obama

July 4th, 2010

“Now serving customer number six hundred thousand?” With all the buzz about the new iPhone 4, there certainly are some great improvements to expect from Apple, but the phone isn’t exactly living up to it’s touted potential, but it sure looks pretty.

The iPhone 4’s front and back panel are made out of chemically strengthened Gorilla Glass instead of shiny plastic. But this is glass and glass breaks and shatters, and it isn’t exactly scratch resistant. Careful which pocket you put your phone in–the one with the keys will make the phone look almost unreadable with the amount of scratches on it, not to mention if you drop it, it will spiderweb like a windshield.

When first looking at the phone, it looks impressive. But taking a closer look you’ll see yellow dots that are on the face of the phone, which some are speculating that these areas of pale yellow are related to how the phone is being held, but so far Apple hasn’t stated anything on the subject. Perhaps it was just a bad batch of screens and later version won’t have this issue. It certainly speaks to Apple’s quality control though.

Along with AT&T’s piss-poor service which has further contributed to the phones lack of reception, the phone has a serious flaw in the way you hold the phone, especially when you touch the bezel with your left hand–but how exactly do you get away from that if your holding it? You don’t!

The “Grip of Death” iPhone 4 flaw had Steve Jobs in rather unfamiliar territory when he too lost his wifi signal when he showed the demo version to the public, which had him visibly upset and blaming it on his audience having their phones on interfering with the wifi signal which he claimed was the reason for the poor reception. We now know that wasn’t the case but rather a major glitch of the antenna of the phone itself.

When you add in that the new features of the camera are crashing many iPhones, the reception problems, despite the myriad of other issues, the phone is indeed one of the best out there in terms of, well, apps.

Apps are probably the pinnacle of reasons why most buy the phone, although having the latest tech toy to boast in your friends faces almost makes the issues and cost of the phone worth it.

Speaking of cost, it ain’t cheap owning an iPhone. With the cost of the phone itself for some , and the AT&T phone plan, and the data plan that is required to purchase the phone, even if you don’t plan on using the Internet, it’s a hefty price just to talk to someone or find your nearest coffee shop or book store on the GPS.

The approximate cost of having an iPhone depending on the plan you have minus the cost of the Apps, can run upwards with the unlimited calling plan and 2GB data plan a whopping $1,140 a year. Account for accessories and applications and it can be well over $2,000 a year for a brand spanking new, look what I’ve got, I can see you, can you see me, hello….hello, are you there iPhone 4.

I can’t wait for next year for the “new and improved” version of the “I gotta have it” iPhone.

Although having the #1 App that farts makes it all the more worth owning. Go iPhone!