Opposing Digits

The one key thread running through all the stories about anyone searching for the truth behind the "October Surprise" or the illegal Illuminati $65 trillion dollar "Global Security Slush Fund" is that the nosy investigators or whistle blowers either end up dead or behind bars for a long, long time.

By no means is the following strange list of deaths complete, conclusive or thoroughly investigated, but the bloodshed spilled definitely has left huge blood stains on the Oval Office rugs of President George H. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton and George W. Bush.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:19 AM 0 comments

A civil liberties group accused the Police Department yesterday of providing false information used to prosecute hundreds of people arrested in protest marches during the 2004 Republican National Convention, and said that information might have tainted the arrests.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said that deposition testimony from a police inspector who oversaw arrests during the convention flatly contradicted criminal complaints against the demonstrators sworn to by the same inspector.

But police officials defended the arrests yesterday, saying that they were "appropriate," and that the inspector's testimony had been taken out of context.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:45 AM 0 comments

The National Security Agency would not have been barred from intercepting communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients during its warrantless surveillance program, according to a statement by a spokesman in the Justice Department on Friday.

Such communications normally receive special legal protections in the United States.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

If you are stopped by police in Kansas, don’t be surprised if the officer pulls out a little black box and takes your fingerprints.

The gadget allows officers to identify people by fingerprints without hauling them to the police station.

Over the next year the Kansas Bureau of Investigation will test 60 of the devices with law enforcement agencies around the state. State officials said similar tests are being planned for New York, Milwaukee and Hawaii.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:18 AM 0 comments

WASHINGTON -- A Kansas meatpacker has sparked an industry fight by proposing testing all the company's cattle for mad cow disease.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to look for the disease in every animal it processes. The Agriculture Department has said no. Creekstone says it intends to sue the department.

"Our customers, particularly our Asian customers, have requested it over and over again," chief executive John Stewart said in an interview Wednesday. "We feel strongly that if customers are asking for tested beef, we should be allowed to provide that."

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:15 AM 0 comments

The announcement on March 19 that steps are being taken to form an extra-parliamentary “National Security Council” (NSC) is a warning that the Bush administration is moving toward an openly dictatorial regime in Iraq.

The White House’s attempts to portray Iraq as a country in a transition to “democracy” are becoming increasingly threadbare. More than three months after the December 2005 elections, there is no new government and no indications that one will be formed anytime soon. No party or alliance holds a majority of seats, let alone the two-thirds majority constitutionally required to elect the presidential council that names the prime minister.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:13 AM 0 comments

The Wall Street Journal reports that ExxonMobil is the key funder of a front group called Public Interest Watch which has been pushing the IRS to audit Greenpeace. Greenpeace says an IRS auditor told it that the PIW letter triggered the audit.

“PIW’s most recent federal tax filing, covering August 2003 to July 2004, states that $120,000 of the $124,094 the group received in contributions during that period came from Exxon Mobil.”

ExxonMobil has not only been one of the biggest funders of climate change denialists and other cigarette scientists , but also been one of the biggest funders of the American Enterprise Institute – you know, the neocon think tank that pushed the war that has nothing to do with oil. I guess I’m not surprised that the Journal says Michael J. Hardiman, a Washington-based lobbyist and public-relations consultant who worked at PIW “left in February 2004 to work in Iraq as a civilian employee of the Defense Department.” Shocked. And awed.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:08 AM 0 comments

Pentagon releases 400 'serious incident reports' voluntarily filed by security contractors in Iraq

About 6,000 non-Iraqi security contractors are operating in Iraq. During nine months in 2004-05, contractors reported firing into 61 civilian vehicles; no one was ever prosecuted. Security analysts say it is likely that such incidents are vastly underreported.

Security contractors supporting the U.S. effort in Iraq regularly shoot into civilian cars with little accountability, according to a News & Observer analysis of more than 400 reports contractors filed with the government.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:58 AM 0 comments

On July 18, 2005 14 year old Ragheb al-Masri sat in the back of a taxi with his parents at the Abo Holi checkpoint. An Israeli bullet penetrated his back and cracked open his chest. His mother screamed as his body lay lifeless. Have you heard his name? I wouldn’t expect that you have because CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post didn’t report the killing online. If they had quoted his parents, their readers would have been able to feel their tears and envision the heartbreak.

Ultimately, no Israeli soldier was arrested or even reprimanded.

Every time a a human bomber strikes Israel, mass coverage of the tragedy begins instantly. Whether landing on the front page of The New York Times or taking up the headline block on CNN.com, the pain Israeli people endure is shown endlessly. Israelis do suffer. Bomb attacks are horrific. Nevertheless, Palestinian pain occurs far more frequently, and yet often overlooked by the mainstream American media.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:47 PM 0 comments

If two dozen once-jittery mice at UBC are telling the truth postmortem, the world’s governments may soon be facing one hell of a lawsuit. New, so-far-unpublished research led by Vancouver neuroscientist Chris Shaw shows a link between the aluminum hydroxide used in vaccines, and symptoms associated with Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), and Alzheimer’s.

Shaw is most surprised that the research for his paper hadn’t been done before. For 80 years, doctors have injected patients with aluminum hydroxide, he said, an adjuvant that stimulates immune response.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:18 AM 0 comments

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – Americans consider the United States to be a country where debate flourishes. Yet with regard to avian flu, hyped sound bites predominate. When President Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion toward "pandemic flu preparedness," even his critics replied "not enough." Meanwhile, public health officials seem obsessed with preparing for an impending crisis - even before they have established that doom is truly heading our way.

What is lacking in the overall discussion about pandemic flu is disagreement, criticism, and skepticism - once the bedrock of science - from researchers willing to question and test the data. Further, little has been done to educate the public on what exactly defines a pandemic.

First, some facts: According to the World Health Organization, the first "outbreak" of the H5N1 virus, also known as avian flu, killed six people in 1997 in Hong Kong. Since then, H5N1 has allegedly killed 97 more worldwide, the majority of whom lived in poor, rural areas and had direct contact with dead or sick birds often kept in unsanitary conditions.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:52 AM 0 comments

’Keif al-Hal’ is comedy-drama which embodies tension between moderates and religious extremists.

A trailblazing Saudi film featuring the country's first silver screen actress will be shown this summer everywhere in the Middle East - except the ultra-conservative kingdom where cinemas are banned.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:42 AM 0 comments

NEW YORK - A macabre scandal in which corpses were plundered for body parts could be even bigger than previously disclosed, with one company alone saying it has distributed thousands of pieces of human tissue that authorities fear could be tainted with disease.

In addition, three other companies have reported quarantining or destroying more than $5 million in tissue from Biomedical Tissue Services — the now-defunct New Jersey supply house at the center of the scandal.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:40 AM 0 comments

Recent figures from the campaign group Iraq Body Count put the minimum number of civilians killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion three years ago at between 33,710 and 37,832.

Although many of those deaths were caused by insurgent attacks, multi-national forces stationed in Iraq ostensibly to protect the population have been responsible for a significant number post-invasion.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed during major offensives by US-led forces against insurgents in cities such as Falluja, and many others have died after lethal force was used at military checkpoints.

Military commanders have said those killed were "collateral damage" or the unfortunate victims of "crossfire" between their troops and militants.

But the announcement that US military investigators have flown to Iraq to study allegations that their troops deliberately shot dead at least 15 civilians in Anbar Province in November has cast doubt on some of those claims.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:39 AM 0 comments

'Scarborough Country' investigates the negative coverage and its effect

Some Americans feel the media may be aiding the enemy in Iraq by reporting bombings and bloodshed while ignoring the good news. President Bush accused the media of being manipulated by the enemy in his press conference Wednesday at the White House.

And while selling the war today in West Virginia’s town hall meeting that he held, President Bush once again suggested the media was biased in its war coverage. The president’s words have obviously angered news executives across America as he tries to make a point in regards to his wartime woes.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

Pharmaceutical antidepressants aren't the best way to conquer our society's depression and anxiety epidemic, and they often have disastrous side effects, sometimes even increasing the risk for suicide. Taking the population as a whole, we're 100 times more depressed today than we were 100 years ago. Furthermore, panic attacks are the number one reason heart disease is going up in women. Julia Ross, a pioneer in nutritional psychology and best-selling author of The Diet Cure and The Mood Cure, explained these dire statistics at the 2005 Complementary and Alternative Medicine Conference (CAMCON).

Four brain chemicals -- serotonin, catecholamine, GABA and endorphin -- are essential for proper mental health, each affecting a different area of the brain. Some of us, unfortunately, have a genetic predisposition to lack these chemicals. Additionally, the modern mainstream diet is deficient in the amino acids that our brains need to make these neurotransmitters. As a result of these factors, incidence of depression and anxiety has reached epidemic proportions.

As a society, we just don't have the coping ability we should have. "Even if things aren't going well, we can still feel good anyway, but we're not," says Ross. Fortunately, these amino acids are widely available at local health food stores, and within five to 10 minutes of taking the supplement, you can feel its effects on your brain.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:45 AM 0 comments

Ernest Backes, finanacial officer for the Clearstream network, holds the "financial keys" to the many Illuminati scandals, including the October Surprise, The Vatican Bank scandal and more.

One man that the ruthless and diabolical George H. W. Bush wants dead or out of the picture probably more than anybody else goes by the surprising and unknown name of Ernest Backes.

And it may come as even a bigger surprise that Backes isn't even a "fat cat" political foe or an undercover FBI agent with information about Bush's Iran Contra drug smuggling days.

Although not a big shot, the information he learned as a backroom banking officer for the Clearstream Banking Network is big news and pins Bush right to wall for lying about what has come to be known as the "October Surprise."

Regarding the Iranian hostage crisis, Bush has always denied any wrongdoing or that he negotiated secretly with Iranians for keeping the American hostages locked up until Ronald Reagan became President.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:43 AM 0 comments

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday.

The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck.

Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:49 PM 0 comments

An FDA advisory panel has unanimously recommended that the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri be returned to the market.

The drug was withdrawn about a year ago after it was found to cause a deadly brain ailment.

It is expected that the FDA will follow the recommendation, making Tysabri the second instance ever of a drug returning to the market after being withdrawn for safety reasons.

Shares in Elan and Biogen, the manufacturers of the drug, jumped upward in response to the news.

About one in 1,000 people who took Tysabri during clinical trials developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare brain disease that results in death or severe disablement. There is no treatment for PML.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:42 PM 0 comments

Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry (EHPP) has published an excerpt from a previously sealed product liability report against Glaxo SmithKline (GSK). The medical expert report documents how the company systematically hid and manipulated data concerning Paxil-induced suicidality in depressed adults. The number of suicide attempts on the antidepressant Paxil was under-reported and the number of suicide attempts on placebo was inflated.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:48 AM 0 comments

Spinal manipulation - which is used by chiropractors and osteopaths in the UK to treat neck and back pain - is of little help, researchers have said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:42 AM 0 comments

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's standard for the maximum amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water -- 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water -- does not protect against adverse health effects, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. According to the most recent data, just over 200,000 Americans have drinking water sources containing fluoride levels at 4 mg/L or higher. The committee that wrote the report concluded that children exposed to the current maximum allowable concentration risk developing severe tooth enamel fluorosis, a condition characterized by discoloration, enamel loss, and pitting of the teeth. A majority of the committee also concluded that people who consume water containing that much fluoride over a lifetime are likely at increased risk for bone fractures.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:39 AM 0 comments

WASHINGTON — The high levels of fluoride that occur naturally in some drinking water can cause tooth and bone damage and should be reduced, the National Research Council said Wednesday.

The study did not analyze the benefits or risks of adding fluoride to drinking water. Instead it looked at the current maximum limit of 4 milligrams per liter. Approximately 200,000 people live in communities where that level occurs naturally in water.

The Council suggested further studies to establish a new maximum level, but noted that the problems associated with exposure to fluoride are very small at 2 milligrams per liter and less. Approximately 1.4 million people have drinking water with natural fluoride levels of 2.0 to 3.9 milligrams per liter, said the Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:10 AM 0 comments

A diet rich in a fat found in oily fish may protect men with prostate cancer from developing a more aggressive form of the disease, scientists have found.

Prostate cancer is much more likely to be life-threatening if tumour cells migrate and invade other tissues, such as the bone marrow.

Lab tests found omega-3 oil - present in fish like salmon - prevented this.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:05 AM 0 comments

Baruch Vega claims he was used by multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies simultaneously in the late 1990s to infiltrate and flip key figures in Colombia’s North Valley Cartel narco-trafficking syndicate.

As a result, Vega contends that he has intimate knowledge of the alleged corruption outlined in the “Kent memo,” an internal Department of Justice document that was leaked to Narco News earlier this year and has prompted a barrage of media attention over the past few months.

Justice Department attorney Thomas M. Kent wrote the memo in late 2004 in an effort to draw attention to alleged serious corruption within the U.S. Embassy in Colombia. In the memo, Kent alleges that DEA agents in Bogotá assisted narco-traffickers, engaged in money laundering, and conspired to murder informants.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:56 AM 0 comments

A group of anti-Zionist rabbis has visited the Palestinian parliament to pledge their support for the prospective Hamas-led government.

The rabbis from the small ultra-Orthodox movement Neturei Karta, which this month sent a delegation to Iran, travelled to the West Bank town of Ram Allah to express their support for the Islamic group.

The group rejects the existence of the state of Israel as contrary to Jewish law and believes the land should be returned to Palestinians.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:53 AM 0 comments

THE OTTAWA Police Firearms Task Force yesterday swooped down on a Navan Rd. homeowner suspected of having a cache of illegal weapons, shot him and his dog with a Taser and left without finding any weapons.

Yvon Richer says he was returning from an early-morning snowmobile ride on his 50-acre property in the city's southeast end at around 9:15 a.m. when a vehicle pulled into the driveway and a voice behind him screamed, "Get on the ground!"

He looked back at a police officer with his weapon drawn and as many as 40 others, some of them in tactical gear, lining the street.

'RELIABLE TIP'

They blocked off Navan Rd. between Mer Bleu and Renaud roads after receiving a "reliable tip" that the 60-year-old electrician, father and grandfather had a cache of weapons, and possibly dynamite stored in his 125-year-old farmhouse.

Richer was fumbling in his thick snowmobiling jacket for his keys to open the door when he was struck by a Taser dart. Shot twice, he has four puncture wounds and numerous bloody scratches to his face.

As the high-voltage charge zapped through his body, he was forced onto his belly on the wet gravel driveway. He felt a knee in his back and a foot on his head holding him down as a third officer cuffed him and emptied his pockets.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:46 AM 0 comments

A new analysis of bariatric surgery patients, published in the journal Nature, reveals that this surgical procedure may be far more dangerous than most people believe. An astonishing 4.6 percent of patients who undergo bariatric surgery are dead within a year. That's almost one out of 20 people who die within a year following the surgery.

That's a huge number, and it indicates the level of risk associated with bariatric surgery. With the number of bariatric surgeries performed each year in this country approaching 50,000, we're talking about several thousand people dying each year from this procedure.

Most surgeries are medically unjustified

I have no doubt that in the years and decades ahead, historians will look back on this present-day practice of surgically removing parts of people's digestive tracts, and they will characterize this as barbaric and medically unjustified. They will look back and wonder why surgeons would remove entire sections of people's digestive tracts in an effort to help them lose weight. Of course, part of the answer is because these surgeons are in business to make money, and they make money by performing surgeries, regardless of whether or not those surgeries are actually safe or effective.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:31 AM 0 comments

The New Underworld Order's bank accounts are used for bribery, murder and corruption world wide as private Illuminati-controlled bankers make money out of thin air. European investigators trying to trace the illegal funds, say the Illuminati's Global Security Fund needs to be stopped and is the difference between freedom and slavery in America.

The Illuminati's cash cow, grazing freely on the world wide pasture of greenbacks, isn't called "Elsie" but instead is called the Global Security Fund, a name actually meaning in the secret cult's language Global Terrorist Fund.

In simple terms, it's a gigantic illegal trust fund, estimated by undercover overseas financial investigators at 65 trillion dollars, set-up for "Illuminati rainy days" and established when it is desperately needed in a pinch for bribery, assassinations and sponsoring world wide terrorist activities.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

Americans who tuned in for one of President George W. Bush's rare press conferences saw a cornered animal trying to squirm his way out of trouble by doing what he has always done - evading the truth.

Bush's attempt to showcase himself as a leader who could handle tough questions from the press corps fell just as flat as his unscripted town-meeting style appearance in Cleveland the day before.

His eyes darted from side-to-side as he fielded questions about his real reasons for invading Iraq. He stammered. Stalled. Used the word "uh" more times than a suspect caught red-handed. He still claimed his reasons for invading Iraq were just, even though those reasons have been proven wrong. He claims the war can be won, a view not shared by many of his generals. He claimed a lot of things - few of them true.

"President Bush exhibited symptoms of pathological prevarication," says Dr. Stephanie Crossfield, a psychologist who treats people who have trouble telling the truth and who watched Bush's performances on Monday and Tuesday at my request. "His eye movements, gestures, and changes in voice tone all display traits of consistent evasion of the truth."

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:23 AM 0 comments

“Our society viewed with loathing those who 'pushed' stimulant drugs on children," says child psychiatrist Dr Peter Breggin. "Yet today, there are more children taking Ritalin and amphetamines from doctors than ever received them from illegal pushers,” he says.

“Parents and teachers and even doctors have been badly misled by drug company marketing practices,” he warns. “Drug companies have targeted children as a big market likely to boost profits and children are suffering as a result."

The marketing campaign referred to by Dr Breggin has proven to be extremely successful At a February 10, 2006, FDA advisory committee hearing, it was reported by Dr Andrew Mosholder, a medical officer in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, that about 2.5 million children in this country between the age 4 and 17, currently take ADHD drugs. A government survey found 9.3% of 12-year-old boys, and 3.7% of 11-year-old girls are on the drugs, he said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:51 AM 0 comments

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 accused headquarters of criminal negligence for its refusal to investigate Moussaoui aggressively after his arrest, according to court testimony Monday.

Agent Harry Samit testified under cross-examination at Moussaoui’s trial that FBI headquarters’ refusal to follow up “prevented a serious opportunity to stop the 9/11 attacks” that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Moussaoui is the only person charged in this country in the attacks.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:40 AM 0 comments

NEW DELHI: Is there a western conspiracy behind bird flu outbreak? Is the panic reaction to the epidemic manipulated by western multinational companies to rake in quick moolah?

The CPM fears all these.

Going a step further, the party suspects a western conspiracy to undermine the Asian economy. “The panic over bird flu was triggered on the eve of reports of Asia emerging as an economic power,” said senior CPM leader Nilotpal Basu on Monday. The CPM leader said a spectre of fear was created across the world with media blowing the outbreak out of proportion in China, India and Vietnam.

Hinting at a scam, Basu said the government imported huge quantity of capsules to fight bird flu virus from Hedero Drugs, a subsidiary of Roche, even though not a single human case was reported.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:38 AM 0 comments

It's official: Operation Iraqi Liberation, which is how former White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer once put it, is now in its fourth year.

(That's Operation Iraqi Liberation, as in O-I-L. But we shan't belabour that point.)

Suffice to say that, it wasn't so long ago that most of us couldn't tell a Sunni from a Shiite, let alone find Fallujah on a map.

Trouble is, most Americans still can't — and an alarming number continue to believe that toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein personally slammed those jetliners into New York City's Twin Towers.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:34 AM 1 comments

A NATIONAL identity card scheme will be a "present" to terrorists, criminal gangs and foreign spies, one of Britain's most respected former intelligence agents has told ministers.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:32 AM 0 comments

Critics said the proposed regulation could lead to a loss of privacy for clients.

The IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire returns - to marketers and data brokers.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:28 AM 0 comments

Recent widespread debit-card fraud likely has roots in three major data leaks that occurred in the last six months, two of which have yet to be publicly disclosed by the companies involved.

Consumers have noted a large increase in the amount of debit-card fraud since the beginning of 2006, as well as a wide recall of cards by banks and financial institutions. Three major incidents are likely fueling the fraud, according to financial and security experts.

A breach associated with bulk-goods retailer Sam's Club last autumn likely resulted in millions of debit-cards potentially being put at risk, according to financial-industry insiders. A second, smaller breach affecting hundreds of thousands of debit cards has been connected to office-supply retailer OfficeMax, although that company has denied any breach of its systems. And, the most recent data leak occurred in an ATM network and likely affected millions of debit-cards as well, banking executives told SecurityFocus.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:18 AM 0 comments

WASHINGTON — President Bush told reporters Tuesday that he doesn't believe Iraq has descended into civil war, but he suggested that U.S. troops could stay in the war-torn nation for years to come.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:15 AM 0 comments

Australia's new counter-terrorism laws are a Pandora's box that could lead to the creation of a police state, says former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld.

Sweeping counter-terrorism powers became law in early December, allowing terrorist suspects to be detained without charge for up to 14 days, along with controls on their movement and communication for up to 12 months.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:15 AM 0 comments

I know it's hard to believe Mr. President, but they have these things know that actually record what you say and are able to play back what they record. Even after a long period of time. Keith Olbermann and Countdown supply the evidence.

Today in his speech in Cleveland:

Bush: "First-just if I might correct a misperception, I don't think we ever said, at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September 11th and Saddam Hussein."

In days gone by-SOTU-three years ago:

Bush: "Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda."

Now-anyone listening and watching his speech back then would make that connection easily enough since al-Qaeda was responsible for 9/11-don't you think? Keith analyzes it very nicely.

Olbermann: "Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda in the same sentence separated by seven words. Sept. 11th and Saddam Hussein -two sentences later, separated by six words. In a moment Craig Crawford joins me to discuss the fundamental remaining question. Who does the President think he's F'n kidding?

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:03 AM 1 comments

A February 2006 issue of Prevention magazine features a young, fit, happy looking couple on its cover, surrounded by headlines like, "How to be (and stay) happy" and "18 best foods to fight disease." Taken at face value, the approximately 4.5 by 6.5-inch, full color booklet appears to be a publication dedicated to exactly what its title implies: "Preventing" disease and health problems. It's when you crack open the cover that the magazine begins to contradict itself.

Sure, there is some valuable content on the 216 pages that follow -- such as an article on using peppermint as a natural way to ease irritable bowel syndrome and a Q & A with Dr. Andrew Weil about preventing osteoporosis naturally -- but all this is interspersed with materials that have little to do with a truly healthy lifestyle, namely a lot of advertisements for prescription drugs.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:00 AM 0 comments

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said it was prepared to launch a pre-emptive military strike and it would not bow to U.S. pressure to give up its nuclear weapons, its official media said in separate reports on Tuesday.

The North Korean comments, which the United States called inflammatory, come as six-party nuclear talks on ending Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons hit a snag over a U.S. crackdown on firms suspected of aiding the North in illicit activities such as counterfeiting and drug trafficking.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:55 AM 0 comments

In a study sure to fuel the controversy about the role of childhood vaccines in autism, scientists at UC Davis have found that a preservative used in some vaccines can disrupt the immune system, at least in mice.

Study authors caution the findings do not specifically link use of thimerosal, which contains mercury, to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:19 AM 0 comments

The recent killing of an unarmed Virginia doctor has raised concerns about what some say is an explosion in the use of military-style police Swat teams in the United States.

Armed with assault rifles, stun grenades - even armoured personnel carriers - units once used only in highly volatile situations are increasingly being deployed on more routine police missions.

Dr Salvatore Culosi Jr had come out of his townhouse to meet an undercover policeman when he was shot through the chest by a Special Weapons and Tactics force.

# posted by madthumbs @ 2:11 PM 0 comments

I don't know if any of you watched Channel 5 News last night, but they did an investigation on dollar stores (including Dollar Tree, Greenbacks & 99 Cents). They discovered the Crest, Colgate and other brand name toothpastes weren't the same as from Wal-mart, grocery stores etc. The toothpastes were manufactured in many other countries and are not approved by the American Dental Association (ADA). There was even some from South Africa and the fluoride is ten times stronger than what we're allowed in the U.S. (prescription strength). They're allowed stronger because they don't have fluoridated water (like we do). So if we (or our kids) use it often and occasionally swallow it, we could be poisoning ourselves. The dollar stores declined to comment and a full investigation has begun. So stick to paying full-price at the grocery store and send this e-mail to anyone who shops at dollar stores.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:40 AM 1 comments

A new protectionist trend has clearly appeared in the United States - but can Americans afford it? If the US tells its trading partners that their money is not welcome, they should be excused if they invest elsewhere. Because of its massive current-account deficit, the US must attract more than US$2 billion in foreign investments every day to keep the dollar from falling.

To illustrate why one should be concerned about a potential decline in the dollar, look at inflation: just about everything in the US has been getting more expensive, except for the goods that can be imported. As the dollar falls, inflation - and with it interest rates - may pick up significantly.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

Cordless handsets 100 times worse than mobiles, say experts.

Having a cordless phone in your house can be 100 times more of a health risk than using a mobile. The popular phones constantly blast out high levels of radiation - even when they are not in use. Landlines are widely thought a safer option than mobiles. But researchers in Sweden now warn cordless phones are far more likely to cause brain tumours than today's mobiles.

Emissions from a cordless phone's charger can be as high as six volts per metre - twice as strong as those found with a 100 metres of mobile masts. Two metres away from the charger the radiation is still as high as 2.5 volts per metre - that's 50 times what scientists regard as a safe level.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:25 AM 0 comments

Chinese authorities have sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for posting an anti-government article on the Internet, a human rights advocacy group said.

Ren Zhiyuan, a secondary school teacher from Shandong province, was handed the sentence after being found guilty of "subversion of state power," Human Rights in China (HRIC) said in a statement. Ren was detained by police on May 10, 2005, the group said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:12 AM 0 comments

Hundreds of well-off Japanese and other nationals are turning to China's burgeoning human organ transplant industry, paying tens of thousands of pounds for livers and kidneys, which in some cases have been harvested from executed prisoners and sold to hospitals.

When Kenichiro Hokamura's kidneys failed, he faced a choice: wait for a transplant or go online to check out rumours of organs for sale. As a native of Japan, where just 40 human organs for transplant have been donated since 1997, the businessman, 62, says it was no contest. "There are 100 people waiting in this prefecture alone. I would have died before getting a donor." Still, he was astonished by just how easy it was.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:11 AM 0 comments

9/11 Truth will present the Spitzer with a “Citizens’ Indictment” for criminal negligence.

NEW YORKERS TO PROTEST SPITZER FOR 9/11 COVER-UP, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22nd, 12-2 PM
Green Party Senatorial Candidate Sander Hicks, and NY911Truth.org: Spitzer Must
Respond to our “Citizens’ Indictment” and Charges of “Obstruction of Justice”

New York, NY, March 17, 2006—New York Green Party senatorial candidate Sander Hicks and 9/11 activist group NY911Truth.org today announced that they will jointly organize a public protest to allow State Attorney General and New York state gubernatorial hopeful Eliot Spitzer to respond to charges of “obstruction of justice” in connection with an inquiry into evidence allegedly suppressed by the 9/11 Commission. Attorneys for 9/11 Truth will present the Attorney General with a “Citizens’ Indictment” for criminal negligence in failing to investigate the attacks.

The protest comes as a result of activist outreach work at Ground Zero and the 9/11 Info Resource Series at St. Marks Church. Another catalyst was a February 15th New York Post story which reported that the State Attorney General forbade any member of his staff from cooperating with a February 2006 Congressional investigation into Able Danger, a Pentagon terrorist-tracking operation that apparently knew about the activities of 9/11 leader Mohamed Atta in early 2000, yet neither acted on this information nor saw their testimony to the 9/11 Commission included in the official 9/11 Commission Report.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:59 AM 0 comments

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi police have accused U.S. troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The villagers were killed after U.S. troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house, the document said.

Accusations that U.S. troops have killed civilians are commonplace in Iraq, though most are judged later to be unfounded or exaggerated.

But the report of the recent killings in the Abu Sifa area of Ishaqi, eight miles north of the city of Balad, is unusual because it originated with Iraqi police and because Iraqi police were willing to attach their names to it.

The report was compiled by the Joint Coordination Center in Tikrit, a regional security center set up with U.S. military assistance. An Iraqi police colonel signed the report, which was based on communications from local police.

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Washington — B vitamin deficiencies can cause a range of serious health effects, including spinal defects in children born to women with below-normal levels of folic acid and anemia in people not getting enough B12.

That is why a two-step method of diagnosing those deficiencies that three medical school doctors patented in 1990 has become so widely used. It is performed tens of millions of times a year, at a cost of just a dollar or two, by laboratory testing companies across the United States.

Now, to the surprise of patent lawyers, a case involving one of those companies, sued after it stopped paying some royalties, has landed in the U.S. Supreme Court, where arguments will be heard Tuesday.

Even more surprising is that the court may dredge up a bombshell question not asked when the lower courts considered the case: Have inventors been busy patenting laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas?

# posted by madthumbs @ 5:24 PM 0 comments

Y ou don't have to be a master intellect to divine the conspicuous lack of scientific consistency in the recent hysteria surrounding avian flu, to which we are being daily subjected. It really doesn't add up, does it? Honestly, how can anyone seriously believe what we are being told:

• avian flu is caused by a distinct new virus - H5N1
  
• it's a real threat
  
• 60 people have died worldwide from it, so therefore
  
• 30% of the world's population is in danger of extinction
  
• millions of birds have died from it, and soon it will mutate to a human form
  
• drugs and vaccines will save us
  
• the threat is imminent - no time to lose

It's no wonder most people believe these erroneous notions: who's going to inform them otherwise? The articles trying to expose avian flu as a scam seem more hysterical and less factual than the actual media propaganda promoting it. So once again this website must set the record straight by careful consideration of the fundamental arguments. The difference will be that in this chapter all sources will be cited.

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Wesley Clark built a campaign for President as an expert in national security. But he recently discovered a hole in his personal security--his cell phone. A resourceful blogger, hoping to call attention to the black market in phone records, turned the general into his privacy-rights guinea pig in January. For $89.95, he purchased, no questions asked, the records of 100 cell-phone calls that Clark had made. (He revealed the ruse to Clark soon after.) "It's like someone taking your wallet or knowing who paid you money," Clark says. "It's no great discovery, but it just doesn't feel right." Since then, Clark has become a vocal supporter of the movement to outlaw the sale of cell-phone records to third parties.

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Most of all, it refuses to explain why it erased footage of an Israeli soldier intentionally shooting a Palestinian boy.

AP, according to its website, is the world's oldest and largest news organization. It is the behemoth of news reporting, providing what its editors determine is the news to a billion people each day. Through its feeds to thousands of newspapers, radio and television stations, AP is a major determinant in what Americans read, hear and see--and what they don't.

What they don't is profoundly important. I investigated one such omission when I was in the Palestinian Territories last year working on a documentary with my colleague (and daughter), who was filming our interviews.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

I work in one of the largest hospitals in Baghdad. I stood by helplessly during the 13 years of sanctions and watched my people -- especially children -- die from lack of medicines and poor sanitation. UNICEF estimated that over 200 children died everyday as a direct result of sanctions.

Many people thought that after the U.S. occupied our country and the sanctions were lifted, the health care of the Iraqi people would improve. But the occupation has made it worse. Many of the Iraqi hospitals in cities like Baghdad, Al-Qaim, and Fallujah were bombed and destroyed. Many ambulances were attacked and health workers killed, despite the fact that it is illegal under international law to attack hospitals, ambulances and health workers.

After our hospitals were bombed and looted, millions of dollars were given to contractors to repair them. We suggested that this money be used to buy things that we urgently need, but the contractors refused and instead bought furniture and flowers and superficial things. Meanwhile, we suffer from a critical shortage of medicines, emergency supplies and anesthesia, and there is no sterilization in the operation rooms. As the director of the pharmacy department in my hospital, I refused to sit on a new chair while there were no sterile operating rooms.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:59 AM 0 comments

If the truth ever is fully known about the strange case of Dr. Francesco Pazienza, the lid should be finally blown sky-high off the White House, blowing a hole so deep and wide that every President since Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan will be nabbed for treasonous high crimes against humanity and the civilized world.

And according to observers in Italy when the dust finally settles, the reason why Pazienza is being held as "a political prisoner" should finally put the finishing touches on despicable men like Michael Ledeen, Karl Rove and President George W. Bush, to name a few.

Although Pazienza claims he doesn't know much, the powers that be think otherwise, keeping him locked away for more than 20 years in a jail in Livorno, Italy.

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"Our nation is on the threshold of new energy technology that I
think will startle the American people," Bush said. "We're on
the edge of some amazing breakthroughs, breakthroughs all aimed
at enhancing our national security and our economic security and
the quality of life of the folks who live here in the United
States."

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:16 AM 0 comments

He was called up on disciplinary charges nearly 50 times for wrecking patrol cars, beating a suspect with a club, chasing suspects into Arkansas against orders, going AWOL and sexually harassing women.

In all, he faced 57 charges alleging 89 on-the-job offenses.

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BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia is a common rheumatologic disorder that is often difficult to treat effectively. CASE SUMMARY: Four patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome for two to 17 years are described. All had undergone multiple treatment modalities with limited success. All had complete, or nearly complete, resolution of their symptoms within months after eliminating monosodium glutamate (MSG) or MSG plus aspartame from their diet. All patients were women with multiple comorbidities prior to elimination of MSG. All have had recurrence of symptoms whenever MSG is ingested. DISCUSSION: Excitotoxins are molecules, such as MSG and aspartate, that act as excitatory neurotransmitters, and can lead to neurotoxicity when used in excess. We propose that these four patients may represent a subset of fibromyalgia syndrome that is induced or exacerbated by excitotoxins or, alternatively, may comprise an excitotoxin syndrome that is similar to fibromyalgia. We suggest that identification of similar patients and research with larger numbers of patients must be performed before definitive conclusions can be made. CONCLUSIONS: The elimination of MSG and other excitotoxins from the diets of patients with fibromyalgia offers a benign treatment option that has the potential for dramatic results in a subset of patients.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:52 AM 0 comments

The FDA's Drug Safety & Risk Management Advisory Committee held a two-day meeting last month on February 9th and 10th to review adverse events linked to the widely prescribed ADHD drugs that included reports of sudden death, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes among adults and children taking the medications.

In the US, between 1999 through 2003, the FDA had reports of 24 deaths among patients who took the amphetamine, Adderall, the staff report said. Eleven more deaths were reported among patients using other drugs in the amphetamine class, it noted.

During the same time frame, another 16 deaths were reported in patients who took Ritalin or other drugs known as methylphenidates, the report stated.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:44 AM 0 comments

SAN FRANCISCO, March 17 (UPI) -- Nutritionists are convinced that, just like everyone else, children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are what they eat.

Specifically, the specialists have their eye on so-called omega-3 fatty acids as playing some role in the condition that, in general, is marked by trouble keeping still, difficulty in maintaining attention, propensity toward acting impulsively or some combination of the three.

Omega-3 fatty acids are plentiful in cold-water fish, such as salmon, herring, tuna, clams, crab, cod, flounder, sole, halibut, catfish, trout and shrimp. They also abound in nuts; soybeans; walnut, olive and flaxseed oil; seeds; whole grains and dark leafy greens.

The fatty acids comprise a hefty component of the brain, which weighs in at about 60-percent fat.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:40 AM 0 comments

As the Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004, an elite Special Operations forces unit converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret detention center. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into their own interrogation cell. They named it the Black Room.

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

There was a whirlwind of activity in the days prior to President Bush's arrival at a home on the beach in Gautier last week, with government officials and Secret Service scouting a location and checking the neighborhood where Bush would stop.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:31 AM 0 comments

A former reserve officer admitted Friday in Allen Superior Court to inappropriately touching a 9-year-old girl in December 2004 under a plea agreement calling for probation.

Matthew Govan, 46, entered a guilty plea to a newly filed charge of sexual battery. The original charges -- three counts of child molesting, one of which was punishable by 20 to 50 years in prison -- will be dismissed at sentencing if a judge accepts the plea agreement.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:29 AM 0 comments

RNU.com – (Raiders News Update) - Today I learned that Madras High School in the little town of Madras, Oregon is the latest government institution to allow students to pay for their lunch with the swipe of a hand.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:27 AM 0 comments

Sometimes the injustices here in New Orleans leave me numb. But the continuing debacle of our criminal justice system inspires in me a sense of indignation I thought was lost to cynicism long ago. Ursula Price, a staff investigator for the indigent defense organization A Fighting Chance, has met with several thousand hurricane survivors who were imprisoned at the time of the hurricane, and her stories chill me "I grew up in small town Mississippi," she tells me. "We had the Klan marching down our main street. But still, I've never seen anything like this."

Safe Streets, Strong Communities, a New Orleans-based criminal justice reform coalition that Price also works with, has just released a report based on more than a hundred recent interviews with prisoners who have been locked up since pre-Katrina and are currently spread across thirteen prisons and hundreds of miles. They found the average number of days people had been locked up without a trial was 385 days. One person had been locked up for 1,289 days. None of them have been convicted of any crime.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:25 AM 0 comments