Source: Michael Snyder, BLN Contributing Writer

The U.S. health care system is a giant money making scam that is designed to drain as much money as possible out of all of us before we die.  In the United States today, the health care industry is completely dominated by government bureaucrats, health insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations.  The pharmaceutical corporations spend billions of dollars to convince all of us to become dependent on their legal drugs, the health insurance companies make billions of dollars by providing as little health care as possible, and they both spend millions of dollars to make sure that our politicians in Washington D.C. keep the gravy train rolling.  Meanwhile, large numbers of doctors are going broke and patients are not getting the care that they need.  At this point, our health care system is a complete and total disaster.  Health care costs continue to go up rapidly, the level of care that we are receiving continues to go down, and every move that our politicians make just seems to make all of our health care problems even worse.  In America today, a single trip to the emergency room can easily cost you $100,000, and if you happen to get cancer you could end up with medical bills in excess of a million dollars.  Even if you do have health insurance, there are usually limits on your coverage, and the truth is that just a single major illness is often enough to push most American families into bankruptcy.  At the same time, hospital administrators, pharmaceutical corporations and health insurance company executives are absolutely swimming in huge mountains of cash.  Unfortunately, this gigantic money making scam has become so large that it threatens to collapse both the U.S. health care system and the entire U.S. economy.

The following are 50 signs that the U.S. health care system is a massive money making scam that is about to collapse…

#1 Medical bills have become so ridiculously large that virtually nobody can afford them.  Just check out the following short excerpt from a recent Time Magazine article.  One man in California that had been diagnosed with cancer ran up nearly a million dollars in hospital bills before he died…

By the time Steven D. died at his home in Northern California the following November, he had lived for an additional 11 months. And Alice had collected bills totaling $902,452. The family’s first bill — for $348,000 — which arrived when Steven got home from the Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Calif., was full of all the usual chargemaster profit grabs: $18 each for 88 diabetes-test strips that Amazon sells in boxes of 50 for $27.85; $24 each for 19 niacin pills that are sold in drugstores for about a nickel apiece. There were also four boxes of sterile gauze pads for $77 each. None of that was considered part of what was provided in return for Seton’s facility charge for the intensive-care unit for two days at $13,225 a day, 12 days in the critical unit at $7,315 a day and one day in a standard room (all of which totaled $120,116 over 15 days). There was also $20,886 for CT scans and $24,251 for lab work.

#2 This year the American people will spend approximately 2.8 trillion dollars on health care, and it is being projected that Americans will spend 4.5 trillion dollars on health care in 2019.

#3 The United States spends more on health care than Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia combined.

#4 If the U.S. health care system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy on the entire planet.

#5 Back in 1960, an average of $147 was spent per person on health care in the United States. By 2009, that number had skyrocketed to$8,086.

#6 Why does it cost so much to stay in a hospital today?  It just does not make sense.  Just check out these numbers…

In 1942, Christ Hospital, NJ charged $7 per day for a maternity room. Today it’s $1,360.

#7 Approximately 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are related to medical bills.

#8 One study discovered that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#9 The U.S. health care industry has spent more than 5 billion dollarson lobbying our politicians in Washington D.C. since 1998.

#10 According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. is  currently experiencing a shortage of at least 13,000 doctors.  Unfortunately, that shortage is expected to grow to 130,000 doctorsover the next 10 years.

#11 The state of Florida is already dealing with a very serious shortage of doctors…

Brace yourself for longer lines at the doctor’s office.

Whether you’re employed and insured, elderly and on Medicare, or poor and covered by Medicaid, the Florida Medical Association says there’s a growing shortage of doctors — especially specialists — available to provide you with medical care.

And if the Florida Legislature goes along with Gov. Rick Scott’s recommendation to offer Medicaid coverage to an additional 1 million Floridians — part of the Affordable Care Act that takes effect next January — the FMA says that shortage will only get worse.

#12 At this point, approximately 40 percent of all doctors in the United States are 55 years of age or older.

#13 In America today, many hospital executives make absolutely ridiculous amounts of money…

In December, when the New York Times ran a story about how a deficit deal might threaten hospital payments, Steven Safyer, chief executive of Montefiore Medical Center, a large nonprofit hospital system in the Bronx, complained, “There is no such thing as a cut to a provider that isn’t a cut to a beneficiary … This is not crying wolf.”

Actually, Safyer seems to be crying wolf to the tune of about $196.8 million, according to the hospital’s latest publicly available tax return. That was his hospital’s operating profit, according to its 2010 return. With $2.586 billion in revenue — of which 99.4% came from patient bills and 0.6% from fundraising events and other charitable contributions — Safyer’s business is more than six times as large as that of the Bronx’s most famous enterprise, the New York Yankees. Surely, without cutting services to beneficiaries, Safyer could cut what have to be some of the Bronx’s better non-Yankee salaries: his own, which was $4,065,000, or those of his chief financial officer ($3,243,000), his executive vice president ($2,220,000) or the head of his dental department ($1,798,000).

#14 Health insurance administration expenses account for 8 percent of all health care costs in the United States each year.  In Finland, health insurance administration expenses account for just 2 percent of all health care costs each year.

#15 If you can believe it, the U.S. ambulance industry makes more money each year than the movie industry does.

#16 All over America, people are reporting huge health insurance premium increases thanks to Obamacare.  The following example is from a recent article by Robert Wenzel…

A California small businessman tells me that he switched healthcare insurance carriers in 2012.  The monthly premium for him and his wife was about $400, but when he received his first bill in January of this year it was for $1,200.  He hasn’t been to a doctor in years, his wife has only gone for minor care.

Apparently there is some clause in the Affordable Healthcare Act that results in health insurance firms using a new method to calculate premiums. Those who have health insurance plans that have been in effect since at least 2010 are grandfathered under the old calculation method, but insurance carriers are using a new formula for new plans.

#17 Blue Shield of California has announced that it wants to raise health insurance premiums by up to 20 percent this year in an effort to keep up with rising health costs.

#18 Aetna’s CEO says that health insurance premiums for many Americans will double when the major provisions of Obamacare go into effect in 2014.

#19 Close to 10 percent of all U.S. employers plan to drop health coverage completely when the major provisions of Obamacare go into effect in 2014.

#20 According to a survey conducted by the Doctor Patient Medical Association, 83 percent of all doctors in the United States have considered leaving the profession because of Obamacare.

#21 Approximately 16,000 new IRS agents will be hired to help oversee the implementation of Obamacare, and the Obama administration has given the IRS 500 million extra dollars “outside the normal appropriations process” to help the IRS with their new duties.

#22 During 2013, Americans will spend more than 280 billion dollarson prescription drugs.

#23 Prescription drugs cost about 50% more in the United States than they do in other countries.

#24 In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined.

#25 Nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis according to the CDC.  Not only that, the CDC also says that approximately one-third of all Americans use two or more pharmaceutical drugs on a regular basis, and more than ten percent of all Americans use five or more pharmaceutical drugs on a regular basis.

#26 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.

#27 In 2010, the average teen in the U.S. was taking 1.2 central nervous system drugs.  Those are the kinds of drugs which treat conditions such as ADHD and depression.

#28 Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants as children in Europe are.

#29 There were more than two dozen pharmaceutical companiesthat made over a billion dollars in profits during 2008.

#30 According to the CDC, approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.

#31 According to a report by Health Care for America Now, America’s five biggest for-profit health insurance companies ended 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion.

#32 The top executives at the five largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States combined to bring in nearly $200 million in total compensation for 2009.

#33 The chairman of Aetna, the third largest health insurance company in the United States, brought in a staggering $68.7 million during 2010. Ron Williams exercised stock options that were worth approximately $50.3 million and he raked in an additional $18.4 million in wages and other forms of compensation.  The funny thing is that he left the company and didn’t even work the entire year.

#34 It turns out that the financial assistance that Barack Obama promised would be provided for those with “pre-existing conditions” under Obamacare is already being shut down because of a lack of funding…

Tens of thousands of Americans who cannot get health insurance because of preexisting medical problems will be blocked from a program designed to help them because funding is running low.

Obama administration officials said Friday that the state-based “high-risk pools” set up under the 2010 health-care law will be closed to new applicants as soon as Saturday and no later than March 2, depending on the state.

#35 In America today, you are 64 times more likely to be killed by a doctor than you are by a gun.

#36 People living in the United States are three times more likely to have diabetes than people living in the United Kingdom.

#37 Today, people living in Puerto Rico have a greater life expectancy than people living in the United States do.

#38 According to OECD statistics, Americans are twice as obese as Canadians are.

#39 Greece has twice as many hospital beds per person as the United States does.

#40 The state of California now ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people.

#41 According to a doctor interviewed by Fox News, “a gunshot wound to the head, chest or abdomen” will cost $13,000 at his hospital the moment the victim comes in the door, and then there will be significant additional charges depending on how bad the wound is.

#42 It has been estimated that hospitals overcharge Americans by about 10 billion dollars every single year.

#43 One trained medical billing advocate says that over 90 percent of the medical bills that she has audited contain “gross overcharges“.

#44 It is not uncommon for insurance companies to get hospitals to knock their bills down by up to 95 percent, but if you are uninsured or you don’t know how the system works then you are out of luck.

#45 According to a study conducted by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping875,000 Americans were “medical tourists” in 2010.

#46 Today, there are more than 56 million Americans on Medicaid, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#47 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#48 Today, there are more than 50 million Americans on Medicare, and that number is projected to grow to 73.2 million in 2025.

#49 When Medicare was first established by Congress, it was estimated that it would cost the federal government $12 billion a year by the time 1990 rolled around.  Instead, it cost the federal government $110 billionin 1990, and it will cost the federal government close to $600 billion this year.

#50 Even if you do have health insurance, that is no guarantee that medical bills will not bankrupt you.  Just check out what a recent Time Magazine article says happened to one unfortunate couple from Ohio that actually did have health insurance…

When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie’s father had been treated there 10 years earlier, and she and her family credited the doctors and nurses at MD Anderson with extending his life by at least eight years.

Because Stephanie and her husband had recently started their own small technology business, they were unable to buy comprehensive health insurance. For $469 a month, or about 20% of their income, they had been able to get only a policy that covered just $2,000 per day of any hospital costs. “We don’t take that kind of discount insurance,” said the woman at MD Anderson when Stephanie called to make an appointment for Sean.

Stephanie was then told by a billing clerk that the estimated cost of Sean’s visit — just to be examined for six days so a treatment plan could be devised — would be $48,900, due in advance.

By the way, that hospital down in Houston made a profit of 531 million dollars in one recent year.

So what can be done about all of this?

Well, the truth is that the status quo is a complete and total disaster, and every “solution” being promoted by politicians from both major political parties would only make things worse.

In the end, the U.S. health care system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, but we all know that is not going to happen.

Instead, our politicians and the health care industry will just find additional ways to extract money from all of us, and the level of care that we all get will continue to decline.

If you don’t believe this, just check out what Paul Krugman of the New York Times had to say recently…

We’re going to need more revenue…Surely it will require some sort of middle class taxes as well.. We won’t be able to pay for the kind of government the society will want without some increase in taxes… on the middle class, maybe a value added tax…And we’re also going to have to make decisions about health care, doc pay for health care that has no demonstrated medical benefits . So the snarky version…which I shouldn’t even say because it will get me in trouble is death panels and sales taxes is how we do this.

Others are urging us to become more like Europe.

But do we really want what they have in the UK?…

Sick children are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial ‘death pathways’.

Until now, end of life regime the Liverpool Care Pathway was thought to have involved only elderly and terminally-ill adults.

But the Mail can reveal the practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young patients as well as severely disabled newborn babies.

One doctor has admitted starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the neonatal unit of one hospital alone.

Writing in a leading medical journal, the physician revealed the process can take an average of ten days during which a  baby becomes ‘smaller and shrunken’.

In the end, my philosophy is just to avoid the U.S. health care system as much as possible.  Most doctors are just trained to do two things – prescribe drugs and cut you open.  In an emergency situation where you are about to die, those may be your best options, but otherwise I would just as soon avoid the gigantic money making scam that the U.S. health care industry has become.

But just don’t take my word for it.  The following is some very sound advice from Dr. Robert S. Dotson…

Avoid contact with the existing health care system as far as possible. Yes, emergencies arise that require the help of physicians, but by and large one can learn to care for one’s own minor issues. Though it is flawed, the internet has been an information leveler for the masses and permits each person to be his or her own physician to a large degree. Take advantage of it! Educate yourself about your own body and learn to fuel and maintain it as you would an expensive auto or a pet poodle. One does not need a medical degree to:

1. avoid excessive use of tobacco or alcohol or, for that matter, caffeine;
2. avoid poisons like fluoride, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, and addictive drugs (legal or illicit);
3. avoid unnecessary and potentially lethal imaging studies (TSA’s radiation pornbooths, excessive mammography, repetitive CT scans – exposure to all significantly increases cancer risk);
4. avoid excessive cell phone use and exposure to other forms of EMR pollution where possible (the NSA is recording everything you say and text anyway);
5. avoid daily fast food use and abuse (remember: pink slime and silicone) ;
6. avoid untested GM foods (do you really want to become “Roundup Ready?”):
7. avoid most vaccinations and pharmaceutical agents promoted by the establishment;
8. avoid risky behaviors (and, we do not need a bunch of Nanny State bureaucrats to define and police these);
9. exercise moderately;
10. get plenty of sleep;
11. drink plenty of good quality water (buy a decent water filter to remove fluoride, chloride, and heavy metals);
12. wear protective gear at work and play where appropriate (helmets, eye-shields, knee and elbow pads, etc.):
13. seek out locally-grown, whole, organic foods and support your local food producers;
14. take appropriate nutritional supplements (multi-vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3);
15. switch off the TV and the mainstream media it represents;
16. educate yourself while you can;

And, lastly…

17. QUESTION AUTHORITY!

Doing these simple, common-sense things will add healthy years to a person’s life and help one avoid most medical encounters during his or her allotted time on earth.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that the U.S. health care system is a gigantic money making scam that is about to collapse?

Friday, 06 May 2011
Whose children will be sacrificed in an illegal and unethical experiment in the name of Biodefense Preparedness?

According to BioPrepWatch.com , the Obama administration is seeking to obtain a green light to conduct an anthrax vaccine safety experiment  on US children.  The stated rationale for such a trial, articulated by Dr. Nicole Lurie, US Dept. of Health and Human Services,  is that there are no data about the safety of exposing children to the anthrax vaccine. And if an emergency arises, a trial "would present an array of logistical, clinical and communication challenges during a public health crisis."

No child would benefit from exposure to a vaccine that has generated thousands of adverse event reports--including deaths--in adults.

Current law allows the FDA to issue an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for "protections against biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear agents that may be used to attack the American people." The FDA Commissioner "may allow countermeasures to be used in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious life-threatening diseases or conditions caused by such agents, when there are no adequate, approved and available alternatives."

In the absence of a national emergency from an anthrax bioterrorist attack, an anthrax vaccine trial in children would violate federal legal and ethical standards which prohibit exposing children to greater than minimal risk if a child does not have a condition that would benefit from the experimental intervention.  45 CFR 46 Subpart D

The Anthrax vaccine is highly controversial and US courts prohibited mandatory vaccination of the military from 2004-2006:

Even when anthrax-laden letters were mailed to several congressional leaders in 2001, Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Bill First, a doctor, criticized the anthrax vaccine on CNN  stating,

    "There are very real and potentially serious side effects from the vaccine and anyone who elects to receive the vaccine needs to be made aware of that. I do not recommend widespread inoculation for people with the vaccine in the Hart Building ...There are too many side effects and if there is limited chance of exposure- the side effects would far outweigh any potential advantage."

Between 2001 and 2004, the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) received 4,136 spontaneous adverse event reports: 347 (8.4%) were reported as serious.

  *Serious adverse events include: death, hospitalization, permanent disability, or are life-threatening. There were 16 deaths.

According a 2007 report by the Congressional watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Center for Disease Control and the Vaccine Healthcare Centers of the Dept. of Defense estimate that "between 1 and 2 percent" of vaccinated military personnel, experienced "severe adverse events, which could result in disability or death."

So, what is the catalyst that prompted public health officials in the Obama administration to request permission to conduct a wholly non-therapeutic experiment that would expose children to serious risk of harm? Such an experiment would callously disregard children's human right to "Life, Liberty and Security of the Person"--as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.

Could it be that the request by DHHS to conduct an anthrax vaccine safety trial in children is prompted by commercial, rather than public health considerations?

Mery Nass, MD whose anthraxvaccine.blog examines illogical and dishonest public health responses--the anthrax vaccine being a primary focus, has revealed that the board of directors of Emergent Biosolutions, the manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine (2007 and 2011) is made up of national political operatives with little anthrax experience--but plenty of ties to government policymakers.

Emergent broadens CDC contract by $101m

On May 2, 2011,  Emergent Biosolutions (formerly Bioport, the manufacturer of Biothrax, the only anthrax vaccine approved by the FDA) announced that the federal government would be purchasing 3.42 million doses of anthrax vaccine to add to the civilian anthrax vaccine stockpile. (reposted below)

This purchase adds about $101 million to the total contract for DHHS' anthrax stockpile, which is now worth about $500 million. The company has made $2.4 billion since 2004, which could climb to over $2 billion if the government purchases the 75 million doses it said it needed. This is in addition to the military anthrax vaccine stockpile.

Washington Business Journal reports that Emergent derives the bulk of its revenue from federal public health agencies.

    “Emergent proudly supports the U.S. government’s efforts and unwavering commitment to meet its stated need of 75 million doses of anthrax vaccines,” said Fuad El-Hibri, chairman and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “This contract is an indication that BioThrax remains a critical component of the government’s arsenal of biodefense medical countermeasures. In addition to this contract modification, we are continuing discussions with the U.S. government regarding a follow-on procurement contract, which we anticipate will cover a multi-year period.”

Emergent Biosolutions also secured a $186.6 million contract for a recombinant protein antigen to combat anthrax and a $28.7 million contract for a third-generation vaccine.

So, how did Emergent secure such profitable US government contracts for anthrax vaccine?

The answer is described by Scot Lilly in "Getting Rich on Uncle Sucker: Should the Federal Government  Strengthen Efforts to Fight Profiteering?"

The Emergant model extracts contracts from the US government at exorbitant high profit margins, compared to the cost of manufacture. The vaccine vials expire after 3-4 years, requiring continuous replenishment--guaranteeing sales of at least $100 million / year to the manufacturer for the foreseeable future.  However the expenditure throws taxpayer money into a black hole.

We say to President Obama: do not even consider the suggestion by your DHHS officials who recommend that children should be put at risk (i.e., sacrificed) to justify anthrax vaccine profits.  

Vera Hassner Sharav

 

    May 02, 2011 
    U.S. Government Expands BioThrax Procurement Contract to 17.92M Doses from 14.5M Increasing Contract Value by up to $101 Million

    ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that it has signed a modification to its current procurement contract (200-2009-30162) with the U.S. government to supply an additional 3.42 million doses of BioThrax® (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed). BioThrax is the only vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect against anthrax infection.

    “Emergent proudly supports the U.S. government’s efforts and unwavering commitment to meet its stated need of 75 million doses of anthrax vaccines”

    This modification to the contract is valued at up to $101 million for the delivery and shipping of additional doses of BioThrax beginning 3Q 2011. Delivery of these doses will commence immediately following early completion of final delivery of the original 14.5 million doses of BioThrax under the contract prior to this modification. Emergent anticipates completing all deliveries of these additional 3.42 million doses of BioThrax during the remainder of 2011.

    “Emergent proudly supports the U.S. government’s efforts and unwavering commitment to meet its stated need of 75 million doses of anthrax vaccines,” said Fuad El-Hibri, chairman and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “This contract is an indication that BioThrax remains a critical component of the government’s arsenal of biodefense medical countermeasures. In addition to this contract modification, we are continuing discussions with the U.S. government regarding a follow-on procurement contract, which we anticipate will cover a multi-year period.”

    About Emergent BioSolutions Inc.

    Emergent BioSolutions protects and enhances life by developing and manufacturing vaccines and therapeutics that are supplied to healthcare providers and purchasers for use in preventing and treating disease. Emergent's marketed and investigational products target infectious diseases, oncology and autoimmune disorders. Additional information about the company may be found at www.emergentbiosolutions.com.

    About BioThrax

    BioThrax is the only FDA-licensed vaccine for the prevention of anthrax infection. It is indicated for the active immunization of adults who are at high risk of exposure to anthrax. BioThrax is manufactured from a culture filtrate, made from a non-virulent strain of Bacillus anthracis. To date, Emergent has delivered over 42 million doses of BioThrax to the U.S. government and continues to deliver additional doses under active procurement contracts. Since 1998, over 10 million doses have been administered to more than 2.5 million military personnel. For full prescribing information, please visit www.biothrax.com/prescribinginformation_biothrax_us.pdf.

    Safe Harbor Statement

    This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, including any potential future securities offering, our expected revenue growth and net earnings for 2011, and any other statements containing the words “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “estimates” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including appropriations for BioThrax® procurement; our ability to obtain new BioThrax® sales contracts or modifications to existing contracts; our plans to pursue label expansions and improvements for BioThrax®; our plans to expand our manufacturing facilities and capabilities; the rate and degree of market acceptance of our products; the success of preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates and post-approval clinical utility of our products; and other factors identified in the company’s Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2010 and subsequent reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.
    Contacts

    Emergent BioSolutions
    Investors Contact:
    Robert G. Burrows
    Vice President, Investor Relations
    301-795-1877
    BurrowsR@ebsi.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
    or
    Media Contact:
    Tracey Schmitt
    Vice President, Corporate Communications
    301-795-1800
    SchmittT@ebsi.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

At the start of the 112^th Congress, every legislator was sworn in using the standard oath proclaiming the members will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Each state has their own oath of office that includes supporting and defending the Constitution as well as the particular state’s constitution. In many states, every civil servant, whether a firefighter, school teacher, or police officer takes the state’s oath of office including the clause regarding supporting and defending the U.S. Constitution. Since the new Congress has been in session, it appears that every single Republican in the House and Senate has broken their promise to uphold and defend the Constitution and it may be time to initiate a full-scale, across-the-board impeachment proceeding to evict the promise-breakers in the Republican Party.

The first Amendment’s Establishment Clause says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and is generally accepted to mean the Congress cannot establish a national religion or show preference of one religion over another. In this session of Congress, Republicans arranged to have the Constitution read aloud to show their intention of strictly adhering to the document they claim directs their agenda and policy decisions. Since they swore to uphold the Constitution and heard it read aloud, there is absolutely no excuse for subverting the 1^st Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

In the House of Representatives, Republicans have been on a rampage to make laws regarding establishment of Christianity as the law of the land, and in the process, are prohibiting the free exercise of beliefs or religion that is not Christianity. The illegal, unconstitutional establishment of religion is not unique to the House of Representatives or the Senate for that matter. Republican governors and state legislators are following the lead of House Republicans in passing laws establishing Christianity as the source of law that all residents must follow in spite of the Constitution’s prohibition.

Instead of working on legislation that helps improve the economy and creates jobs, House Republicans are attacking women’s reproductive rights and using Christian dogmata to dictate spending cuts and defunding strategies in an effort to ban abortions. The issue has gone beyond the argument that government funds shall not be used to pay for abortion; Republicans have worked to make it impossible for women to enroll in health policies that cover abortion whether the coverage is used or not, and regardless that a woman pays for the coverage with her own funds. Regardless of the reason an individual is against abortion, the Republicans are using the bible as the basis for the law and not the Constitution.

In states with Republican majorities, the theocratic lawmakers are taking drastic steps to impose Christianity on women with total disregard for the Constitution or freedom to choose their own reproductive health. In South Dakota, for example, women seeking an abortion must wait for three days and submit to sermons outlining the iniquities of abortion, and in Utah, a law seeks to criminalize miscarriages, and many states are attempting to pass laws granting personhood to a zygote. The bible-inspired laws are being supported by religious organizations that are also attempting to impose their anti-gay beliefs on Americans in states throughout the nation.

There are more ominous signs that Republicans are moving closer to theocratic rule, and they are unapologetic about their Reconstructionist intentions. Presumed presidential candidate and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty told audiences in New Hampshire and Iowa that elected officials should apply their faith to government, and he addressed the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition saying that, “We need to be a country that turns toward God, not a country that turns away from God.” Pawlenty also says that if he were president, he would reinstate the discriminatory DADT law that was repealed in December. Pawlenty is an Evangelical Christian who recently released a book detailing his Christian principles and how they inform his decisions and politics.

Pawlenty is representative of many Republicans who are using their power and influence to insert Christianity into the law. It really is of no consequence if it is one legislator imposing their bible-based beliefs on their constituents or an entire party; it is unconstitutional. The Constitution protects Christians and gives them the freedom to worship and assemble, but it prohibits them from forcing the government or its citizens to follow their religious dogma. The Republicans who have decimated women’s rights, discriminated against gays, and rejected science-based knowledge are legislating for Christianity.

The Republican governors and state legislatures are passing laws that are, in effect, establishing Christianity as the law of the land. They are also prohibiting the free exercise of religion by anyone except Christians, and in particular are persecuting Muslims. The Republicans who are in the running to be the presidential candidate in 2012 are all devout Christians and it does not bode well for America. They are unapologetic and have openly flaunted their belief that America must return to god in order for the country to prosper.

America is beset with economic problems that need to be resolved by rational politicians on both sides of the aisle, but when one side is only willing to work on promoting Christian dogmata and inserting religion as a replacement for the Constitution, the country is in trouble. The trouble can be ameliorated by removing the legislators who are breaking their oath of office. It is a simple case to prosecute. The Republicans took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution that specifically says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, but they are passing legislation that is establishing Christianity as the basis of law.

The offending Dominionists and Reconstructionist Republicans must be impeached, recalled, prosecuted, and convicted of lying, breaking their oath of office, and establishing religion as law. They need to be removed before it is too late and America actually becomes a theocracy. If they are allowed to continue, the Ten Commandments will be the Constitution and America will revert to the Stone Age; all because the Republicans are allowed to break their oath of office.

As federal battles over medical marijuana across the country heat up, a statement from one federal agency may be a huge asset for medical marijuana dispensaries that have been targeted by the various arms of the U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is a division of the National Institute of Health, which is itself one of the 11 component agencies that make up the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Last week, the NCI quietly added to its treatment database a summary of marijuana’s medicinal benefits, including an acknowledgment that oncologists may recommend it to patients for medicinal use.

The summary cites clinical trials demonstrating the benefit of medical marijuana. Part of it reads:

The potential benefits of medicinal Cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep. In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal Cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect.

Although 34 states have passed laws recognizing marijuana’s medicinal properties and 15 states, plus Washington, D.C., have legalized it for medical use, this is the first time a federal agency has recognized it as medicine. Despite recent developments, Attorney General Eric Holder said in 2009 that the Justice Department would not raid medical marijuana facilities, but at no point did he acknowledge their legitimacy as distribution centers for medicine. A 2001 Supreme Court ruling, meanwhile, declared that medical use of marijuana cannot be considered in any federal court deliberating on a marijuana possession or distribution case.

The new NCI assessment could have an impact on the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the harshest possible drug classification, which has resulted in a prison population in which 1 in 8 prisoners in the U.S. is locked up for a marijuana-related offense. One of the principal criteria for a Schedule I determination is that there be “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” The U.S. Justice Department may have a hard time maintaining that claim if challenged, considering a federal agency now recognizes marijuana’s medical use in cancer treatment.

From the other side of the argument comes a new white paper (PDF) from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) censuring the prescription of marijuana by doctors in states where its medical use is legal. The ASAM takes issue with the fact that marijuana is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and therefore not subject to the same standards as other medicines. The white paper also cites as a health risk the fact that the most common method of using marijuana is smoking it.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, believes that the ASAM paper is a direct response to the new NCI evaluation and that ASAM physicians have a vested interest in keeping marijuana illegal in all cases.

“These doctors are making a fortune off of marijuana prohibition,” he says. “They have a financial, proprietary interest to maintain the status quo.”

St. Pierre argues that addiction specialists would be losing a major revenue source if marijuana were legalized, decriminalized or simply recognized as medicine in federal court. Without the massive number of arrests and convictions based on marijuana-related offenses, there would be a sharp drop in the number of patients referred to a doctor for marijuana addiction counseling by judges.

“The NCI statement? Fascinating. The AMAS reply? Pathetic. And predictable,” says St. Pierre.

Dr. Andrea Barthwell, former president of AMAS, claimed in an AMAS press release that the white paper had its origins in a concern for doctor liability and responsibility.

“Allowing cannabis to circumvent FDA approval sets a dangerous precedent and puts us on a slippery slope,” she said.

Photo: As It Stands

Over a 10-year period, more than 10,000 people died from taking FDA-approved drugs, while zero died from marijuana, which is considered by the federal government a highly dangerous Schedule I drug with no medical uses.

Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin'.

There has never been a single documented primary human fatality from overdosing on cannabis in its natural form in any amount.

Photo: Executive Healthcare

GUADALUPE DISTRITO BRAVOS, Mexico — Her uncle, the mayor who gave her the job nobody else wanted, warned her to keep a low profile, to not make too much of being the last remaining police officer in a town where the rest of the force had quit or been killed.

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Jesus Alcazar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Érika Gándara, police chief of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, Mexico, disappeared in December.

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Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

A wave of terror has turned Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, near Texas, into a frightened outpost of the drug war. Nearly half of its 9,000 residents have fled.

“I am the only police in this town, the authority,” she told reporters.

Then, two days before Christmas, a group of armed men took her from her home, residents say, and she has not been seen since.

It was an ominous punctuation mark on the wave of terror that has turned this cotton farming town near Texas into a frightened outpost of the drug war. Nearly half of its 9,000 residents have fled, local officials say, leaving block after block of scorched homes and businesses and, now, not one regular police officer.

Far from big, infamous cities like Ciudad Juárez, one of the most violent places in the Americas, the war with organized crime can batter small towns just as hard, if with less notice.

The cotton towns south of Juárez sit in territory disputed by at least two major drug trafficking groups, according to government and private security reports, leading to deadly power struggles. But the lack of adequately trained police officers, a longstanding crisis that the government has sought to address with little resolution, allows criminal groups to have their way.

“Small cities and towns are really highly impacted,” said Daniel M. Sabet, a visiting professor at Georgetown University who studies policing in Mexico. “They offer strongholds organized crime can hold and control.”

Some towns consider themselves so vulnerable that they have gone out of their way not to antagonize criminals. Believing that those involved in organized crime would be less inclined to harm women — and because fewer men are willing to take the job — local officials have appointed a handful of women in the past year to senior police ranks in small cities and towns here in Chihuahua, the country’s most violent state.

After a spate of violence in a neighboring town, Praxédis Guerrero, local officials selected a 20-year-old college student in November as police chief to run the force of nine women and two men, hoping that criminal networks would see her as less threatening.

Marisol Valles, the young police chief, has made it clear that she leaves major crimes to state and federal authorities to investigate. Really, she said, she just reviews civil infractions issued by other officers and rarely leaves the office. “I am more like an administrator,” said Ms. Valles, who does not carry a gun or wear a uniform.

But the criminals have not discriminated. Hermila García, the woman appointed police chief of Meoqui, a small city in central Chihuahua, was killed on Nov. 30 after only a month in the job.

Guadalupe tried to put a nonthreatening face on law enforcement by appointing Ms. Gándara chief in October. But it appears that she tried — or at least talked about — taking the job more seriously, to the regret of her uncle, Mayor Tomás Archuleta. He had good reason to counsel a low profile: He took office after his predecessor was killed last summer, part of a wave of assassinations of local officials across Mexico.

“I told Érika, ‘Be careful,’ to not make waves,” Mr. Archuleta said, openly frustrated by the picture of her with the rifle. Like Ms. Valles, her role is more to issue citations, leaving serious crimes to state and federal authorities.

Guadalupe has plenty of them to investigate. There are as many abandoned homes and businesses — several of them gutted — as occupied ones. One recent morning, four homes smoldered from an attack and two people had been shot dead with high-powered weapons, the bullets leaving several gaping holes in cinder-block walls.

Few people here leave their homes after 5 p.m., and see soldiers and police officers only briefly after a major crime or when they are guarding the monthly delivery of government pension checks for retirees.

“We lock ourselves in most of the time,” said Eduardo Contreras, 26, as he watched residents douse and pick through the embers of their smoldering homes.

In a voice choked with tears, María Torres, 70, who grew up here, said, “This is so sad what has happened here,” as she carried a sign for a church service.

Mr. Archuleta, the mayor, said the town mainly gets its protection from soldiers based at a recreation center in Praxédis Guerrero. Maybe, Mr. Archuleta suggested, not having local police officers is better. He said local residents had told him that common crimes like burglary had dropped out of fear of drawing the attention of a military patrol.

“There aren’t any” minor crimes, he said, his voice dropping to a near whisper.

But townspeople disputed that, complaining that the soldiers or state and federal police officers were rarely seen except after major violence had occurred.

“There is no police, no fire department, no social services, nothing here,” said the middle-aged matriarch from one burned-out home, declining to give her name for fear of reprisals. “People get away with everything here. Nothing gets investigated, not even murders.”

Not long afterward, a four-truck caravan of federal police officers arrived from another town, hopping down from their vehicles, taking notes and asking her and other family members for a word. The family refused even to open the gate for the police, apparently out of fear of being seen talking to them, and the officers moved on. The officers appeared to be taking stock, driving from crime scene to crime scene and taking notes, but not mounting a forensic investigation.

At the site of the double murder in the morning, one officer dabbed at a pool of blood and body fluid on the driveway with a stick; another picked up a piece of flesh and playfully tossed it at a companion.

Ms. Gándara may not have investigated much deeper. Local police officers in small towns usually play a mostly preventive role, refereeing minor disputes, handling the town drunk and quieting rowdy teenagers, city managers said. Many are not armed.

Mr. Archuleta would say little else about his niece, Ms. Gándara, citing an investigation by the state prosecutor’s office, which would not comment on a motive. But he noted that he had turned to her when nobody else would take the job. She had experience as a security guard and appeared not to be involved in any criminal activity, he said.

“Who knows what people do in their private lives,” he said, “but I did not think she was involved in anything.”

Jeremy Lasko
Food Freedom

High dose Vitamin C’s impact on a man in New Zealand is stunning and wonderful news being heard around the world. The behavior of the hospitals and medical establishment, on the other hand, is causing outrage.

In August 2010, 60 Minutes reported on Intravenous Vitamin C curing a New Zealander’s swine flu just as life support was to be terminated. Dairy farmer Allan Smith had been in the hospital for weeks.

Doctors felt certain he would die and wanted to take him off life support. This dramatic 18-minute report shows his “clouded out” lungs indicating “white out pneumonia”:

Despite doctor disbelief in Vitamin C efficacy, the family finally convinced them to treat Smith with high-dose IV Vitamin C.  This is what his lungs looked like after two days of treatment:

The show reveals that when doctors stopped the high dose Vitamin C treatment, he deteriorated. Again, the treatment was started, and again he improved. But doctors later reduced his Vitamin C intake from 50 grams a day to 2 grams a day. His recovery reduced to a snail’s pace.  Finally, the family directly provided Smith with Lyposomal-Encapsulated Vitamin C orally, and his recovery became complete, well ahead of predictions.

In 2006, the National Institutes of Health confirmed Vitamin C’s efficacy in treating cancer, something Linus Pauling attempted to share with the world decades ago, for which he was attacked, rather than lionized.  Intravenously administered Vitamin C as cancer therapy: three cases.

“We found 3 well-documented cases of advanced cancers, confirmed by histopathologic review, where patients had unexpectedly long survival times after receiving high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy. We examined clinical details of each case in accordance with National Cancer Institute (NCI) Best Case Series guidelines. Tumour pathology was verified by pathologists at the NCI who were unaware of diagnosis or treatment. In light of recent clinical pharmacokinetic findings and in vitro evidence of anti-tumour mechanisms, these case reports indicate that the role of high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy in cancer treatment should be reassessed.” [Emphasis added.]

Yet S 510 and S 3767, “food safety” bills in the US and C-36, a “product safety” bill in Canada, would remove access to this treatment and to all supplements in adequate enough doses to treat disease.

Even prior to the “food safety” bills, the FDA has been working for years to remove information on the scientific value of supplements, even very recently threatening health stores and websites that they may not even mention the word “flu” or “H1N1″ in advising customers about what products could be helpful.