Posts with the tag FDA

Stop the Ban on Cloves I don't want to be a criminal cigarette importer!!!

David from San Ramon, CA — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:37:42 EDT

Have I lost my right to choose as an american what I put in to my body? Will you tell me next I can't have starbucks? Why can all cigarettes just be sold in cartons or make a register of clove smokers so us adults and those of indo-american culture can enjoy the kreteks of their home land via mail order so we don't all become criminals and import cloves illegally after the 1st of september. Why not let clove smokers register and mail order their poison or just sell all cigarettes by the carton. This is a violation of constitutional rights. If you ban my cloves then ban obama's menthols. They are way more attractive to kids since everyone wants to be a rapper. My best friend from indonesia.. You just took a huge part of his culture away and now he will be a criminal who has them shipped from his family. Just today we were honest business men and now we count the days until we are criminal clove importers. Now that obama banned my cloves and I have to order them like a criminal! I wonder if Obama would sign a ban that included his cigarettes now that I am scrambling to get a bunch of djarums shipped before september 1st and find a resource to get them after the ban. These cigarettes are $8 a pack and $70 a carton. Why don't we sell flavored (or all cigarettes) in cartons? Then only smokers who are dedicated can buy them, children and the poor people who can afford a single packs but not health care will have to quit. I thought I lived in america, a free country. Where as an adult I have the priveledge to make a decision if I want flavored tobacco or flavored liquor. Flavored liquor is way more desirable to teenagers than flavored cigarettes. Flavored cigarettes are not affordable but any kid can get flavored liquor for a few dollars. We already have a law that prevnts minors from smoking, it is really the obligation of the parent. Not the government. Surely we wouldn't ban menthol or whatever brand Obama smokes anytime soon. These cigarettes I have been legally smoking since college are now illegal. I may as well smoke pot, they'll legalize that and tax it but won't let me enjoy a clove with my coffee. These guys get $210 a month from me for a pack of djarums a day and $2500 a year. Kids can't afford that. Middle class men and women can barely swing that. Especially these day, kids don't really smoke like they used to. People look at you like you have a disease when you smoke. Kids and the poor are going to smoke whatever they can afford. Most kids start on the brands there family and friends smoke (marlboro,camel,newports) menthols being especially popular with kids during the rise of hip-hop/pop culture. They are easier to smoke. A lot of people won't even smoke cloves because they are harsh and heavy. I gave my cousin who has been smoking reds for 30 years a clove yesterday and he almost choked to death. Way too much for the average smoker. These clove cigarettes are more cigarish and elitest with their high prices and taxes. Which is weird why in a recession that we take items off the shelf that provide such high tax revenues. Cloves and even other flavored cigarettes are smoked by the college type, the intellectual, coffee shop goers, musicians, goths, eccerntrics and other berkely types. These enjoyable smokes help me relax, review and reassess while I enjoy a cup of coffee. My friend likes them once or twice a month when drinking. My friend from indonesia smokes them daily like I do except the difference between me and him is you are depriving this man of his cultural right when america is suppose to embrace the ideas of different ethnic groups. We let the jewish go to temple, we let the middle eastern folk go to mosque and put curry on everything, the russian's get their vodka and the asians get their rice, rotten eggs and dog. My friend can't ever again smell the clove scent of his country, he and I went from being successful businessmen to having to become illegal clove importers just to enjoy our lifestyles. Just for my friend to enjoy is culture and feel at home with how he was raised. Almost all clove cigarettes come from indonesia and so it really disrupts their market regardless of what the upper brass thinks. This is protectionism. This is a violation of my amendments and rights. This law gives the fda way too much control and makes us a big brother country where the government raises the children since we allow the parents to be incompetent. I am an american who has been stripped of constitutional rights. I will do what I want, this will not stop me from getting my cloves nor will the lack of the 1% of cloves in the market will not curb kids from smoking. Most kids don't smoke these days. It's not cool to smoke you get treated like a leper. Like I said, sell cigarettes by the carton only and tax them to death. The real smokers will buy them. The drinking smokers will bum them and the kids and very low income will not be able to afford them. I mean what's next? Take away my flavored mouthwash? What about super sweet apricot beer that kids love. Kids die from alcohol, not cigarettes, more kids die from fraternity activities. Kids who smoke generally have family that smoke. No one wakes up and says I think it will be cool to pay for bad breath and cancer just to hold this cool stick. Leave us free adults alone. Regulate the parents and do not let the administration and the fda turn america in to a dictatorship and make us 1% of smokers live a harder life of luxury. To much control. Iv'e always leaned more democrat but honestly these liberals need to leave me alone with their whole foods infested berkelyish veagan ideas that say I can't eat meat or ill die, or transfast because ill die or oxygen because ill die. Don't worry we will all die soon enough and if you don't let smokers and drinkers kill themselves then you have population control to deal with. Well let's just let the fda put mercury in our dental fillings, and hormones in our babys milk and not let us smoke the brand of cigarettes we enjoy. Protectionsim, loss of rights. Damn is the apocolypse comming? I hope indonesia sticks their foot sideways up the behind of the WTO and fight for my rights as an american before I have to move to a country that is a little less motherly. This is how I feel and most people agree. The new ban is stupid.-david

Insurance System Congressional Agenda - Fix it

Dale — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 05:07:05 EDT

Medicare Cost a mess. Definitely YES! This is one large issue which needs to be tackled. As I sat overseeing budgeting in a hospital, the staff went through a process of the effect on indigent care. Some increases and many cuts in reimbursement. The whole concept is NOT based on producing a quality of care and is horrible! What happened to the way it used to be; medical professionals getting paid fairly?

For one thing, it is a nightmare to administer and follow all the rules. If is was a simple pay for the fair costs of all medical care with elimination of all the inclusions and exclusions, the cost of of administering these programs would be reduced at least 15 - 20% or more.

Stephen Views the News 1/15/09

Stephen from Elkins Park, PA — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:24:53 EST

Stephen Views the News 1/15/08

http://stephenviewsthenews.blogspot.com/

* Being special does not abdicate responsibility – Most of the people reading these words find themselves in a most unique moment in the history of humans who have walked on this planet. We enjoy a standard of living and a sense of peace and safety rarely found in history books or what is the reality for most of the people in the world today. For those of us “special” individuals there is a sense of entitlement that is insulating in its nature. It affects all political affiliations in this country and it seems to have been especially embraced by the Republican Party over the last 3 decades. It removes us from the poverty, violence and subjugation so prevalent throughout the world and including parts of this blessed country. As individuals there is a limit to what we can do about it. We depend upon our government, our representatives, to take needed action both domestically and internationally. What we can do is pressure our elected representatives to do what is right and take greater care in those we elect.

This caveat is required because too many of our representatives have failed us. Too often our government has added to sorrowful conditions internationally and proved inadequate in alleviating undesirable conditions domestically. These conditions did not begin with the Bush administration but it was during this administration that abuse of power militarily and economically and an ignorance of people with needs reached its respective heights and depths. I believe that much of the support for Obama’s candidacy was a reaction to this misguided policy. To the President who so woefully presided over eight years of reversal for the American people I eagerly say farewell. To the man about to take office, Barack Obama, I wish him wisdom, forbearance, humility and good fortune because the fate of Americans and many of the peoples of the world are now dependent upon his guidance.

* Quote of the Week – “The United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. That we will uphold our highest values and ideals.” The words were spoken by Barack Obama at the press conference introducing his Intelligence Team on January 9, 2009. An incredible number of Americans volunteered to help elect Mr. Obama. These were some of the words and more importantly the actions we want from the President of the United States of America.

Broadcasts this week featured President Bush saying the exact same words “The United States does not torture,” in news clips from years past. (The evidence and Mr. Bush’s own words during his legacy tour the past two weeks showed this statement to be a lie.) I trust that Mr. Obama will prove to be a president we can believe.

* Letter of the Week - A group of scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have sent a letter to the Obama transition team about widespread managerial misconduct in a division of the agency. "The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the scientific review process for medical devices at the FDA has been corrupted and distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the American people at risk." In the letter FDA dissidents alleged that agency managers use intimidation to squelch scientific debate. In the Bush administration business interests took precedence over the interests of the American people and avoided scientific findings like they were a communicable disease. I would not be surprised if similar letters are being sent from the Dept. of the Interior, the EPA and a plethora of other federal agencies. I am optimistic that such an anti-intellectual approach to government and special interest generated “under sight” will improve with Bush’s departure.

* Responsible approach to our environment ~ our lives are at stake – Last week I discussed the health threat resulting from the lack of regulation and guidelines for the byproducts of coal-fired facilities. “Senate Democrats said…they want stricter rules for toxic ash from coal-fired power plants following a massive spill in Tennessee that has threatened drinking water and caused health fears.” Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said, "The federal government has the power to regulate these wastes, and inaction has allowed this enormous volume of toxic material to go largely unregulated." Inaction is the operative word. Taking action following a disaster is positive. As the Obama administration designs it economic recovery program preventative programs should be an important element. Recall that is was known for a long time that the levees in New Orleans were inadequate to keep the city from flooding under certain conditions. The price for upgrading the levees would have been a lot less than the costs that resulted from the Katrina disaster. And how many lives would have been saved? The staggering cost of the Tennessee cleanup will possibly be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Health issues aside, lack of prevention is stupid economics. And NO, health issues are not aside. It is the tragic consequence of ignorant economics.

* The Word of the Day ~ “Confabulation” is defined as familiar talk or conversation – Last Saturday my Yahoo home page offered this word of the day. It accompanied news on the same page about Illinois Governor Brad Blagojevich’s impeachment, Mayor of Baltimore Sheila Dixon’s indictment on theft and perjury, more news about the Ponzi embezzler Bernard Madoff and news of additional mini-Madoffs. These are the current faces of the disease of fraud and dishonesty running rampant throughout our society. Feeling helpless we confabulate about these matters and shrug our shoulders. I have a sense that as a society we have become too accepting of much that is wrong and what such a development forebodes.

* Lack of accountability contributed to this mess ~ it will not get us out of it - When Barack Obama was asked about investigating possible crimes by the Bush administration his response was “we should look forward as opposed to looking backwards”. I found this response condescending and irresponsible. Eight years of unaccountability, marked by very responsible individuals and organizations identifying the breaking of laws cannot be swept under the national carpet. It only keeps the door open for further abuses by the Obama administration or future administrations. Fortunately, there are some responsible people in Congress (this is not a typo) who do not accept Obama’s somewhat glib view:

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said, “I think that there’s a lot that remains to look at, and I appreciate that President Obama doesn’t want to make it his purpose as a new president, with America in real distress in many directions, to go back and look at all this, but I think we in Congress have an independent responsibility, and I fully intend to discharge that responsibility.”

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary committee “got behind a very different approach, releasing a nearly 500-page report that recommends establishing a blue-ribbon commission -- along the lines of the 9/11 commission, but with subpoena power -- to investigate whether crimes were committed” by members of the Bush administration. “The report also advocates an investigation by the Justice Department, potentially involving a special prosecutor. And in addition to focusing on issues of torture, wiretapping, and the like, the report also recommends continuing to probe matters like the leaking of the name of former CIA agent Valerie Plame, and the US Attorney firings.”

For two months we have listened to Bush and Cheney and their supporters/spokespeople weaving a legacy web as disingenuous and delusional as much of Bush’s presidency. I suggest that it is imperative the truth be told.

* The rule of law – In a speech last June the man Barack Obama has nominated for Attorney General, Eric Holder, said: "I never thought I would see the day when a Justice Department would claim that only the most extreme infliction of pain and physical abuse constitutes torture and that acts that are merely cruel, inhuman and degrading are consistent with United States law and policy, that the Supreme Court would have to order the president of the United States to treat detainees in accordance with the Geneva Convention, never thought that I would see that a president would act in direct defiance of federal law by authorizing warrantless NSA surveillance of American citizens. This disrespect for the rule of law is not only wrong, it is destructive in our struggle against terrorism."

Holder is the nominee that Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA) is opposing for Attorney General. It appears that my “esteemed” senator from Pennsylvania prefers Attorney Generals who range from overly partisan to incompetent such as Ashcroft, Gonzalez and Mukasey – appointments he did not block in his Judiciary Committee. Spector never tires of hearing himself pontificate but many of us in Pennsylvania are exhausted. Should Mr. Spector decide to run again in 2010 he has my commitment to work for his defeat.

* Making the big decisions, or, it’s not my ass on fire – On Wednesday I watched VP Dick Cheney being interviewed on PBS. Jim Lehrer asked Vice President Cheney about the American soldiers who have lost their lives in the war in Iraq. Lehrer asked, "Mr. Vice President, getting from there to here, 4,500 Americans have died, at least 100,000 Iraqis have died. Has it been worth that?" "I think so," Cheney responded. Mr. Cheney failed to note that none of his children or grandchildren lost a life, an arm, a leg or their eyesight or sanity in Iraq.

* “Sometimes we are so caught up in who's right and who's wrong that we forget what's right and wrong.”

Author unknown

FDA CHANGE: Thanksgiving Should Be Biotech Food FREE

NonGMOTalk — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:51:05 EST

Poll: 270 Million Americans Want GMOs Labeled
By next Thanksgiving I hope President Obama will have permanently removed the biotech industry from FDA policy making.
Thanksgiving GMOs include: GMO Turkey
GM animal feed
GMO Cranberry Dishes
High fructose corn syrup
Soy lecithin
GMO Pies
Vegetable oil (soy, corn ,cotton or canola)
Aspartame
GMO Green Bean Casserole
Soy protein concentrate in cream soupsGenetic Engineering or Genetic Modification of food involves the laboratory process of artificially inserting genes into the DNA of food crops or animals. GMOs can be engineered with genes from bacteria, viruses, insects animals or even humans.
Three simple tips for buying Non-GMO food staples are:
Oils
Replace oils from the four major GM oil crops, corn, cotton, canola and soy, with other readily available oils such as olive, safflower, grape seed or peanut.
Dairy
Avoid buying products from cows fed with GM corn and soybeans or injected with the (rBST or rBGH) bovine growth hormone.
Sweeteners
Avoid corn sweeteners made from GM corn like high fructose corn syrup. Shun beet sugar that will be in hundreds of your favorite products starting with the 2008 crop. Buy cane sugar products. A petition against new GM sugar can be found at www. responsibletechnology.org Organic products are another way to avoid GMOs. Learn more about the impacts of GMOs on health, environment, the economy, and agriculture, and the problems associated with current research, regulation, corporate practices, and reporting: www.responsibletechnology.org.

STUDY: Advocates Call for Immediate Ban of All GM Foods and GM Crops

NonGMOTalk — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:01:25 EST

Austrian Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified Crops Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety A long-term feeding study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, managed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth, and carried out by Veterinary University Vienna, confirms genetically modified (GM) corn seriously affects reproductive health in mice. Non-GMO advocates, who have warned about this infertility link along with other health risks, now seek an immediate ban of all GM foods and GM crops to protect the health of humankind and the fertility of women around the world. Feeding mice with GM corn developed by the US-based Monsanto Corporation led to lower fertility and body weight, according to the study conducted by the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Lead author of the study Professor Zentek said, there was a direct link between the decrease in fertility and the GM diet, and that mice fed with non-GM corn reproduced more efficiently. In the study, Austrian scientists performed several long-term feeding trials over 20 weeks with laboratory mice fed a diet containing 33% of a GM variety (NK 603 x MON 810), or a closely related non-GM variety used in many countries. Statistically significant litter size and pup weight decreases were found in the third and fourth litters in the GM-fed mice, compared to the control group. The corn is genetically engineered with genes that produce a pesticidal toxin, as well as genes that allow it to survive applications of Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. A book by author Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetic Roulette, distributed to members of congress last year, documents 65 serious health risks of GM products, including similar fertility problems with GM soy and GM corn: Offspring of rats fed GM soy showed a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weights, and the inability to reproduce. Male mice fed GM soy had damaged young sperm cells. The embryo offspring of GM soy-fed mice had altered DNA functioning. Several US farmers reported sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed on GM corn varieties. Additionally, over the last two months, investigators in India have documented fertility problems, abortions, premature births, and other serious health issues, including deaths, among buffaloes fed GM cottonseed products. The principle GM crops are soy, corn, cottonseed and canola. GM sugar from sugar beets will also be introduced before year’s end. Mr. Smith, who is also the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology says, “GM foods are likely responsible for several negative health trends in the US. The government must impose an immediate ban on these dangerous crops.” He says, “Consumers don’t need to wait for governmental action. They can download a free Non-GMO Shopping Guide at www.HealthierEating.org.”Monsanto press offices in the UK and USA were unable to provide a comment on the findings for journalists yesterday. The Institute for Responsible Technology’s Campaign for Healthier Eating in America mobilizes citizens, organizations, businesses, and the media, to achieve the tipping point of consumer rejection of genetically modified foods. The Institute educates people about the documented health risks of GMOs and provides them with healthier non-GMO product choices. The Institute also informs policy makers and the public around the world about the impacts of GMOs on health, environment, the economy, and agriculture, and the problems associated with current research, regulation, corporate practices, and reporting. ### Institute For Responsible TechnologyMedia Contact: NJ Jaeger Expert Contact: Jeffrey M. SmithEmail: njmail@cox.net Phone: +1-310-377-0915 Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety Corporate Communication: Univ.-Doz. Ingrid KieferTel: +43 50 555-25000; Email: ingrid.kiefer@ages.at LinksAustrian Study: http://www.ages.at/ueber-uns/presse/pressemeldungen/klarstellung-zu-neuen-erInstitute for Responsible Technology: http://responsibletechnology.orgNon-GMO Shopping Guide: http://www.responsibletechnology.org/DocumentFiles/144.pdf Genetic Roulette: http://www.geneticroulette.com

Historic 2008 Election is Finale to a Forgoten 60s Era

Stephen — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:25:06 EST

In the midst of this historic election, I can’t help but wonder whether an Obama presidency might represent a “finale” to the 60s movement that we never had. I mean, it has only been in recent years that the 1960s have been ramticized by youth and marketers eager to capitalize on its popularity. Obama's rise to the presidency is an American story brought about in large part by the revolution of thwe 1960s. But it wasn’t romantic by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn’t about selling hamburgers and cars in cool clothes. It was real. It was a difficult period in our history. We nearly had a nuclear war with Cuba and Russia. Kennedy was assassinated. There was the civil rights showdown on segregation in schools. The 1965 riots. Then a worsening Vietnam War and mandatory draft of young men, many going to their deaths for a war that had no direction and could not be won. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Robert Kennedy as well. Americans began to leave their churches, pareticularly, the Catholic church. Young people began resisting and demonstrating. Then there were the Kent State shootings of eight students by the Ohio National Guard. For a kid growing up in the 1960s, it was a lot to absorb.

By the mid-1970s, the Vietnam War, the 60’s activism, and Nixon presidency were over. The country seemed at a loss for direction. I was in college then. Our chief concern was in the nuclear arms buildup in trying to keep up with Russia. I recall numerous pieces in the news then how the world might end by 2008. I actually dropped out of pre-med in part because of a lack of confidence that I (and we in the U.S.) would not have a certain future. As it turns out, we did. But the manner in which it was done has become one of short sighted, weak leadership.

The country merely “moved on” from the 60s. We didn’t get it! It's like we took a “stupid pill” and forgot everything we had gone through between 1962 and 1974 - threw away our notes, and forgot to formalize conclusions that we could follow in years to come. As a result, the 70s were extraordinarily dismal economically and culturally. The leadership of both major political parties was “milk toast.” I mean, “disco” became the highlight of that critical period. That should tell you something. In 2008, we face history with the opportunity to elect a black President. Yet, some in this country who might oppose a black President for the color of his skin never "got it" from the 60s.

By the 1980s when Ronald Reagan took office, he brought a new and different course to economic and military progress. The country was amiss in problems in the Middle East and Russia. Reagan introduced trickle-down economics that sparked a new economic era, but it included cuts in needed government services and in exchange ushered in a new more accomodating view of U.S. corporate mergers and acquisitions, the real beginning of today’s deregulation that in my view led to the excesses that brought down our financial markets and economy in 2008. Despite economic prosperity in the 1980s, it was “politically incorrect” to bring up the 60s in reflection. Political candidates and business leaders frequently denounced their 60s involvement in order to become successful businessmen. Still others ended up on the street as Vietnam War Vets with PTSD and similar disorders. They and others became the illegitamate offspring of a difficult, revolutionary, and defining period in American history. Depending on who you asked, you would hear either good and bad views of this period.

By the mid to late 80s, the country had seen fairly widespread growth and prosperity, except for the forgotten war vets and increasingly crowded and poorer inner cities like Los Angeles and New York City, that had been left out of the economic expansion as companies took jobs and fled the inner cities in huge numbers for the suburbs and first wave of outsourcing with cheap foreign labor. At that time, no one figured there would be a sizable unrest just a few years later in the 1992 Los Angeles riots. We weren’t looking for it. We had Bruce Springtein, the very successful 1984 Olympics, the expansion of professional sports, the fall of the Berlin Wall, with Russia right behind it. But per the stresses released in the 1992 riots, there were siginificant pentup issues, and arguably abandonment. Also, by 1992 the U.S. and particularly California, was in the grips of a sizable recession.

Somehow - we got through the 1992 riots and that recession. And by the late 90s, we had the tech boom, NAFTA, and more outsourcing of jobs. It wasn’t real apparent, but there was a growing divide between the middle class. A lot of people lost money when the tech boom went bust, yet it gave us insight into new and creative funding of economic expansion, including, new and creative tools to fund the economy, particularly, “derivatives.” Real estate values soon began growing at a never before seen pace. Life in the U.S. between 2002 and 2006 was all about money, and how an average Joe Homeowner could pull from their home, like an ATM or slot machine. But with this period, was increasing homelessness and poverty, and failed opportunities to invest in our nation’s infrastructure and new technologies. We “jacked off the dogs to feed the cats” so recklessly, that when we woke up, we realized the dogs had died and much of everything else was starving. By 2007, an ugly handwriting was on the wall. But, Wall Street gurus responded with increasingly brazen attempts to spin and create money. Then came the news of Bear Stearns, and the 1st governemt bailout.

For too long as a nation, we have ingored the obvious, our people, our infrastructure, our sick and needy - and all in exchange for leveraged riches for just a few. And now our ways have caught up with us. But, I must correct myself here. I was NOT a part of this reckless economic expansion. Since 1992, I’ve been undergoing a series of brain surgeries to get a shunt to correctly relieve fluid pressure on my brain. During this period, my life, health, and recovery were blocked by Wall Street and FDA level failures and coverups of safety issues with a popular CNS shunt device. Yes - I was sold out for Wall Street riches - just like many of you. Brain shunts are big business. In order for me to have any hope for a future, I had to become a health advocate, FDA policy and law expert, a neuroscientist, an expert in artificial intelligence, and an inventor of a diagnostic shunt test. But no matter what I did, it was never good enough. On every occassion, I had to fight Wall Street influences. In fact, I directed my 2 most successful surgeries. But, it’s taken me 7 surgeries in all, including, my recent successful surgery in May of 2008 that finally relieved the swelling on my brain, albeit after 16 years. Why 16 years? It took that long to convince the powers that be on the right way to implant shunts, as well as numerous supportive scientive papers I had written. I nearly got my shunt of today implanted back in 1998. On that occassion, the FDA stopped me. Then, on numerous times since, each and every neurosurgeon I saw was somehow affiliated with a (Wall Street) shunt company, whose shunts all failed me. So - I am kind of like those in the inner city. Like those being drawn in or brought here illegally to work for cheaper wages than a residing American. I am an American, disenfranchised and deprived of life and liberty by today's Wall Street and its influences. Now, as much as half of the country has also been disenfranchised albeit by the same dishonest mechanism. Yes - in September/ October 2008, shit hit the fan in the U.S., and government and business leaders who had prided themselves on deregulation, low taxes, and outsourcing were brought to their knees - and in the balance, a nation waits, eager for any hope of new leadership. And, then came Senator Barrack Obama.

Yes - I had a vision today of what was, and what could again be. A proud and homogenious America, an accomplished nation. I saw Barrack Obama at the helm. I believe the excitement that so many see is that of an Obama presidency and the prospects that we might once again reconnect with our past, perhaps in a revolutionary type of way as I expect the change and resulting progress to be unharalded per any other era in our history. And we need this. We need this to help us better understand who we are as Americans, and the course we must plot in moving ahead. With the ascention of Barrack Obama as our favored next President, I couldn't think of a better "finale" and tribute to an era and movement I and others knew as the "60s."

So, with this critical election so close at hand, I again choose "us," just as I did in the 1960s.

My new article on front page today of Seoul Times, Korea, re: Obama's Galvanizing 30 Million American Idealists and Reformers, plus Reminiscence of Paul Newman at United Nations

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:01:47 EDT

My latest article, "Obama's Presidency Will Galvanize 30 Million American Idealists and Reformers, and a Personal Memory of Paul Newman" is on front page,today's Seoul Times in Korea! http://www.theseoultimes.com/ST/index.html

and at OpEdNews, where your comments are most welcome!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-s-Presidency-Could-G-by-Stephen-Fox-080928-180.html

If all else fails, because of broken links, etc., just google <30 million American Idealists> and you will go right to it!

Stephen Fox, Founder New Millennium Fine Art Santa Fe, New Mexico

Obama Presidency Will Galvanize 30 Million American Idealists and Reformers, and A Personal Memory of Paul Newman

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:05:35 EDT

Obama Presidency Will Galvanize 30 Million American Idealists and Reformers, and A Personal Memory of Paul Newman---new article by Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News

http://www.nowpublic.com/health/obama-presidency-will-galvanize-30-million-american-idealists-and-reformers-and-personal-memory-paul-newman

Obama Would Benefit by Describing His Potential Cabinet Choices, and Specifically What He Wants Them to Achieve, starting, let's say, with Howard Dean, Bill Richardson, and Jerry Brown!

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:26:57 EDT

I have been writing some halacious (and I believe quite excellent) articles on the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR AND LONG RANGE BENEFITS FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH, FOR DR. HOWARD DEAN III, M.D., to be considered an "early" member of Obama's Cabinet, if that wouldn't be too big a step down for one of his genius level intelligence, I say as Secretary of Health, or better yet, FDA Commissioner, to take federal regulatory power out of the hands and make it begin again to actually protect consumers.....

FDA Commissioner should be a Cabinet Level position, anyway...it oversees a full 25% of the entire US Economy , the segment based on Food or Drugs).

The 6 decades-long subservience to corporate demand and corporate profits, the influence of corporate lobbyists to destroy true consumer protection legislation at all levels, the international implications, especially Economic, of a total regulatory failure in the United States Food and Drug Administration: all of this needs to come to a rapid, almost immediate end, with a very strong consumer protection-oriented FDA Commissioner who is not going to open the Revolving Door at the FDA to corporations regulated by the FDA, and not going to constantly capitulated to the whims an profits of Big Pharma and Big Junk Food, dba Grocery Manufacturers of America, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Wrigley's Gum, Ajinomoto of Japan (the world's largest manufacturer of both Aspartame and of Monosodium Glutamate, and everybody's fist choice for monster corporation: Monsanto, etc.

I see no better choice than nor anyone else I would trust more to do that job than Howard Dean!

[Here is one of my first articles on this subject:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Medical-Corner-of-the-by-Stephen-Fox-080824-149.html]

(I also want to see New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Secretary of State and California Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown, as Attorney General)

I frequently hear that such discussions, if they came from Obama, would be deemed "presumptuous" and "arrogant", some say by the press and others say from the Neocon Right Wingers.

However, if he were to speak to that issue in the context of what he would like to achieve as President in the various key realms, Environment, Education, International, Defense, etc., and at the same time, mention some names of who the USA MIGHT see in charge of which Cabinet level positions:

With some more obligatory brainstorming, THIS SEEMS LIKE A DYNAMITE CAMPAIGN TACTIC AND WAY TO SECURE FENCESITTERS AND UNDECIDED, especially in Battleground states....

Too bad if the Neocons label it "arrogant" or "presumptuous." I could care less what they think. This is not some mere campaign ploy, but a plan that would illuminate ALL Americans as to what his administration might achieve. In such a comparison with McCain, I am sure Obama would come out clearly on top.

Prediction: McCain will use the Bush 2004 Debate Tactic of Deriding Obama's Ostensible "Lack of Experience." Cheney used that as well in the VP Debates. You know McCain will hammer that, but describing Cabinet picks during the debates will blow McCain and his leaky boat right out of the tub! The Republicans will, in their fuzzy demented way, will remember how well this worked in 2004!

I see clearly that if Obama would try this on a trial basis, here and there, before the first debate, ultimately he would be doing it for the right reasons, so that the American public might better comprehend his highest goals domestically and internationally, and it would open the door to perceptions of his candidacy, raising it above the National Enquirer propensities of the Republican Team in this election.

Obama should immediately ask Dwight Eisenhower's Granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, to appear at campaign major events in the Battleground states, for in the Senate Races, and in the Presidential Race. I am sure she would accept.

I have heard from at least 50 people in Florida that they are praying and begging for former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, to come to Florida, to dispell the vicious rumors the R's have spread throughout the elderly mostly Jewish community, that Obama is some kind of secret Muslim Terrorist.

I am serious about such reports coming from South Florida, and I thus encourage Obama and Biden to invite Ed Koch to spend a month in Florida on their behalf, and to ask Susan Eisenhower to appear in older Rust Belt and Bible Belt rallies, where older fence sitters and undecideds will hear her grandfather, the last Real Republican, with great benefit for the Electoral Vote Tally.

Respectfully offered,

Stephen Fox
Founder, New Millennium Fine Art
a Santa Fe Gallery since 1980
stephen@santafefineart.com

New Mexico's next U.S. Senator Tom Udall's statement in Memory of September 11; Some Historical Observations, and Concluding Advice to Obama on a Shift He Absolutely Must Make in Order to Win!

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:11:00 EDT

[PHILADELPHIA - Republican presidential candidate John McCaincut short his first public appearance without running-mate Sarah Palin after chanting supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama interrupted his speech.

After lunching with a roundtable of women at Philadelphia's Down Home Diner, McCain shook hands with supporters and strode up to a podium to deliver a
statement. But as he spoke, chants of "Obama, Obama, Obama" filled the room.

Reporters craned forward trying to hear the Arizona senator. Unfortunately for McCain -- and possibly overlooked by aides who planned the event -- a section of the diner opened up to a market where a crowd had gathered behind a cordon.

A large contingent of Obama supporters showed up, mixed with some who had bumper stickers reading "Democrats for McCain".

"It's time to leave the talk behind and start shaking up Washington and fixing our economy, taking care of the problems facing our families. We're
going to give a tax cut to every family with a child," he said.

His words were barely audible.

McCain's supporters shouted "John McCain", "John McCain," "John McCain". The duelling chants nearly drowned out the presidential hopeful's voice.

"Pennsylvania is a battleground state as we can tell," McCain said.

Meanwhile Palin, the Alaska governor, was on a flight back to her state.]

U.S. Representative Tom Udall, D-N.M., released the following statement today in solemn remembrance of the tragedies of September 11, 2001:

"September 11 is a day that invokes immense sadness in all of us. Today, we remember the pain that we felt seven years ago.

But Americans learned something about ourselves on September 11, 2001, and what we learned should make us all proud.

We learned that, in America, when we find ourselves face-to-face with tragedy, we know a simple truth: we are our brothers' keepers; we are our sisters' keepers.

We know that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.

That if one American dies needlessly, we are all diminished by that loss. As we mark this somber day, let us take comfort in that lesson: whatever our enemies do to us, Americans will stick together. And we will not be defeated."

_______________________________

My own recollection/observation was after 9/11 when the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar al Saud, donated a check for many millions of dollars to the 9/11 victims fund, as I recall $10 million, and accompanying the check was a letter in which he made many points, and among them was the question of the United States' need to figure out what it might have done to cause this ghastly disaster and act of Terrorism.

That was too much for Rudy Giuliani, who immediately returned the check to Bandar, objecting very vociferously to Bandar's his commentary.

When I read about this in the New York Times, I immediately recognized this as Giuliani's error, but we all throughout life recognize this uniquely human trait of not being able to accept responsibility (or even a hint of a discussion of responsibility) by someone who is in some kind of serious trouble. It is just too much for them to deal with.....

The Saudi passport of Saeed Alghamdi, said to be discovered in the wreckage of Flight 93.

Steel beams from the WTC were already being removed and recycled on September 20, 2001. [Source: Associated Press]

A chunk of hot metal being removed from the North Tower rubble about eight weeks after 9/11. [Source: Frank Silecchia]

From left to right: Dick Cheney, Prince Bandar, Condoleezza Rice, and George W. Bush, on the Truman Balcony of the White House on September 13, 2001. [Source: White House]

Bandar certainly should have had some keen insights into these matters; from Wikipedia, in italics:

[Prince Bandar has formed close relationships with several American presidents, notably George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, who gave him the affectionate and controversial nickname "Bandar Bush". His friendship with Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, extends to the years before Cheney took office as the United States Vice President. Prince Bandar invited the Cheney family to his daughter's wedding in the 1990s, but they did not attend.

The close relationship with the Bush family is also described in Craig Unger's book House of Bush, House of Saud and is highlighted in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11....

Prince Bandar has endured controversy over allegations in the book Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward that President George W. Bush informed him of the decision to invade Iraq ahead of Secretary of State Colin Powell. Also, the book alleged a deal had been worked out to reduce oil prices just ahead of the November 2004 election. Bandar publicly endorsed President Bush.

On June 26, 2005, Prince Bandar reportedly submitted his resignation as ambassador to the United States for "personal reasons".[4][5] Bandar's return to Saudi Arabia was announced weeks prior to the death of King Fahd upon which Bandar's father, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz became the nation's Crown Prince. It has been rumoured that Bandar's return was timed in order to secure a position in the new government.[6] In October 2005 he became the kingdom's national security chief.]

Wat happened? According to another source; "Saudi princesses are no less benevolent than their husbands, brothers and cousins. Ambassador-Prince Bandar's own wife Princess Haifa, daughter of the late King Feisal, received a letter from an unknown woman telling of problems with medical bills. The Princess-Ambassadress dashed her off a check in six figures -- and the money by some strange route ended up among the resources of the perpetrators of the September 11 atrocities. The revelation so upset Her Royal Highness that various sympathetic Washington ladies rushed their condolences and sympathy to her -- including Mrs. George H.W. Bush and Mrs. Colin Powell. "

I am not a 9/11 conspiracy kind of guy/paranoid, not at all. I concluded long ago that even talking about such was a waste of time, my time at least....

However, having said that, since September 11, 2001, I do believe we have a lot of evidence of how our hostility about Islam now has alienated most of the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, about 60 nations; it is obvious that the Chinese have run rings around us in terms of investment and economic policy throughout most of the world, particularly in Africa; it is screamingly obvious that American excursions into Iraq along with most of the US wars since 1945 have been in essence imperialistic in nature, and as such have earned us increasing hostility; one British tourist visiting Santa Fe compared the British in Ireland to the Americans in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

"If you kill their mothers and children and cousins and brothers over several years, pretty soon the entire nation becomes terrorists."

I do believe that the core of this Modern History was all essentially delineated by Marx, Engels, and especially by Hegel, in his discussions of Dialectical Materialism.

All those ISM's and the thesis/antithesis/synthesis processes make perfect sense to me in explaining the History of Economic Systems; it is clear to me that when Big Pharma and Big Junk Food corporations and their hired guns/lobbyists effectively take over the regulatory processes of a nation, like they have done with the FDA, that we are doomed in health, in history, in medical and consumer credibility, and in Economic well-being.

I have written a lot of articles on related subjects, particularly Consumer Protection, Aspartame, and Donald Rumsfeld's having forced through the FDA the approval for Aspartame/Methanol/Formaldehyde, so he could make $12-20 million personal profit, the health of hundreds of millions of people be damned....

I won't regale you with this on this solemn occasion, but allow me to recall a lecture in Santa Fe a few years ago by former President of Poland and Nobel Laureate Lech Walesa to the effect that the USA has lost its moral stature in toto as well as most of its political power, squandered its economic power in order to preserve and just barely maintain its military power, which was no replacement for moral, political, or economic power. That was quite brilliant, truly.

Similarly, DNC Chairman and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean III, M.D., was recently in Santa Fe to fire up the troops, and one thing in particular stuck with me, when he said no nation could bring peace in any conflict unless it had the moral authority to sit at the negotiating table.

We don't have that power and that moral authority throughout most of the world right now, thanks to the past 8 years of Bush/Cheney/Neocon/Blackwater/Halliburton/Kellogg Brown, and Root mode of economics and government economic policies.

I really don't believe that in general Economics nor specifically that Macro Economic insights from government economic advisors, for example, hardly qualifies as rocket science.

It is more akin to the old irrigation system of colonial New Mexico, in which the farmer who controlled the flow of the irrigation ditch, or ACEQUIA MADRE ("MOTHER DITCH" in Spanish) determined which field the water would flow into. He was called the Majordomo, and in that society, was much more important than any Mayor, or "ALCALDE" in Spanish.

That is what has happened during the past 8 years. The White House and other government masters of the flow of monies have purposefully turned the irrigation ditch waters into such things as Military, Defense Contractors, Weapons, Hardware, Security, etc.

What was in that other field, the one that got neglected and deprived of water?

Just about everything else: Education, Inner Cities, Highway maintenance and construction, Infrastructure, huge realms of Scientific and Medical Research like Stem Cell Research, etc. You name it: our American Economy is in terrible shape, and with the way our international respect has deteriorated, squarely because of Bush and Cheney, it might get a lot worse....the signs are everywhere; they are well known and they are easily recognized: endemic mortage failures, high gas prices, a deflated stock market, high unemployment, failed schools especially in the Inner City, store closings, et. alia.

Much of this election hinges on our ability to change all of that, to put America back on a sane and internationally effective tack, and that is at a minimum, just to ensure our survival as a nation.

That is why I want to see Dr. Dean be the Obama Cabinet Secretary for Health or as FDA Commissioner, and that is why I want to see NM Governor Bill Richardson as the next Secretary of State. I think also that Jerry Brown of California would make a great consumer protection-oriented United States Attorney General, one who would also reconstruct all of our civil liberties.

Such speculations are of course something else entirely, but I am certain that Obama should discuss such things seriously and frequently, ignoring the advice of some who say that that would be ridiculed by the right wing as "presumptuous" or as "arrogant," so that the American people can gain some glimmer of an insight into what he really would like to achieve as President, in terms of names, both possible and real and well known names.

Will Obama win?

To get to that victory, I work day and night as a member of 328 Obama groups, coordinating correspondence, and urging people to not just "preach to the choir," as that is how Democrats usually lose elections, but to get out there and go door to door to tell folks how much is really at stake in this election, plus my special focus: Letters to the Editor, Opinion/Editorials, and so on, all over the United States, wherever they could be published.

Surprising how few people comprehend this in only a few states, and in not many of the so-called BATTLEGROUND STATES, for Obama and for US Senate candidates, as described in my blog about a week ago in the letter from Senator Charles Schumer.

I am going to take a break from all of this furious emailing, so you won't hear from me for a while.

I will conclude with a few paragraphs written today, not by me, but an astute observer and friend of mine,who wishes to remain anonymous, about 50 years old, a realtor, former actress, and thinker:

Recently, I was on a flight to Texas and sat next to a very personable and fairly astute guy. We began talking politics and went back and forth about the issues. He was really impressed by my research and said so.

Then he leaned over to me and whispered conspiratorially, "I concede all the points but Obama is a Muslim, you know."

And when I calmly explained that that particular lie fed on our basest fears, he held up Reverend Wright as proof. This scene has been repeated numerous times with different characters but the underlying emotional message is clear and powerful. Their winning on a gut level. They are afraid and the facts don't matter.

Obama is perceived as "the other."

The Republicans have clearly defined him emotionally and he must wrest these irrational pictures away from them and supplant them with powerful and soothing reassurance.

Obama may loose this election if he does not connect on a visceral level soon. He must capture the emotional narrative and stop trying to be only reasonable. People do not reason their way into the voting booth. They move from the gut.

He has much "low-hanging fruit" to choose from. Sarah Palin is a right-wing fundamentalist wack-job. She is an extremist and Americans of all stripes are uncomfortable with extremism. John McCain has abandoned every "maverick" position he's ever held.

It's all on video, from her prayers to the oil pipeline god to the massively naked ambition which has led him to do a 180 on every major political stance of his past. Use Their Own Words To Out This Outrageous Hypocricy. Draw passionate simple pictures once again and reframe this narrative, from the gut. It's the only way. "

______________________________________

Obama has to win!

Medical News Corner: Howard Dean, M.D., as Secretary of Health or FDA Commissioner? / Japanese scientists create stem cells from wisdom teeth

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:07:21 EDT

The Medical Corner of the News: Howard Dean, M.D. as Secretary of Health or FDA Commissioner?

[this article was originally published at my blog on mybarackobama.com; details are at: http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=57470&ret=AccountDtl.aspx]

Howard Branch Dean III, M.D., may have higher goals than being Health Secretary or FDA Commissioner in the Obama Administration. He is, after all, the brains behind the 50 state coordinated strategy which might actually bring back a 60 vote filibuster proof majority to the Democrats in the Senate, and where do you go from there, having done that? He might be too smart to be in such a job, so that would be up to him, of course, and to President Obama.

But just for a minute, remembering the speeches we have heard and the letters we have read from Dr. Dean: imagine having a populist consumer protectionist physician of Dr. Dean's calibre (there are no others) at the helm of the FDA, the single most important Federal Agency, since it directly oversees 25% of the American economy, instead of the glut of corporate serving lackeys we have had in the past 8 to 16 years.

Just like I want to see a major internationalist like William Blaine Richardson III as Secretary of State, and the recent placement of his speech at the Democratic Convention proves others are thinking along the same lines; similarly, I want to see a massive overhaul of the American regulatory system in terms of food additives, chemicals, preservatives, sweeteners, etc., as I am sure they killing millions, and not just in the USA.

Further. we need an Attorney General with the positive record and proven stance in protecting consumers rather than corporate bottom lines would be California Jerry Brown, and an Attorney General who will work to restore American Constitutional freedoms and 850 years old measures like Habeas Corpus, instead of tearing them down, and routing them whenever it seemed to suit their fancy or their deluded view of terrorism and national emergencies that they themselves caused, whether directly or indirectly.

I am in the process of determing what Dr. Dean has to say about this, and who the FDA Commissioner is going to be is mighty important to the American people, whether they realize it yet or not; hopefully, it wouldn't be a step down for him to go in to the FDA in January, and start to correct many or all of the ghastly mistakes by the FDA, particulalry the Bush Commissioner, Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach, in the latter's penchant for coming up with corporate-pleasantries as policy. If it doesn't appeal to Dr. Dean to do this, who would he in turn recommend?

The FDA is a state of abject failure, and a large part of the failure stems from the cozy relations it has with Big Pharma, which unforatunately spills over into the far larger field of Big Grocery, with ghastly consequences for us every time we sit down to eat, or everytime we go to a regular commercial grocery store, to dodge the carcinogens and neurotoxins in the food additives.

The fundamental perspective has to be overhauled in the next FDA: it is there for the consumers, not for the coporations. There are not many people I would trust to put in charge of overseeing and regulating 25% of the US economy, but I do trust Dr. Howard Dean to do that in an intelligent, agressive, and creative manner, just like he has run the Democratic party over the past few years.

IN FACT, HE WOULD BE BRILLIANT.

______________________

THE ENTIRE INTERFACE BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND STEM CELL TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH IS ABOUT TO CHANGE, FOR THE BETTER....

______________________

Japanese scientists have devised a method of creating stem cells from wisdom teeth which would otherwise have been discarded, allowing them to find cures to diseases without the controversy implicit in using embryos. "This will prove to be a major breakthrough," said Dr Hajime Ogushi, from his Osaka laboratory of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

His team extracted dental pulp from wisdom teeth removed from a 10-year-old girl three years ago and had been stored in a freezer, and from that pulp, stem cells with the ability to develop into replacement human organs or nerves can be grown. Research on stem cells taken from human foetuses has resulted in criticism from the Catholic Church, for destroying human life. The research seeks cures to a range of illnesses, including diabetes and cancer.

"These teeth were extracted three years ago and would have simply been thrown in the rubbish," said. Dr Ogushi. "Skin or bone marrow for this sort of research is quite difficult to obtain but this sort of operation is routine and very straightforward."

The cells were extracted from the wisdom teeth and encouraged to develop for a period of 35 days. Tests then confirmed they were stem cells.

Dr Oguchi said it was also simple to store the cells; he therefor plans to develop a tissue bank - as long as the funding is forthcoming, estimating that will take a decade to achieve, and give future scientists a range of genetic codes that can be matched to a patient to minimise the risk of
transplanted organs of tissue being rejected. Dr Ogushi said that people who have their wisdom teeth removed as youngsters could have them frozen and use them later in life for treatment.

Embryome Sciences develops new medical products using embryonic stem cell technology and is a subsidiary of BioTime Inc., reported on 21 August that the company has licensed a portfolio of patents and patent applications from Advanced Cell Technology Inc with respect to induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cell differentiation technology.

The company is applying the license for the commercialisation of products in human therapeutic and diagnostic product markets. The technology covers methods for the transformation of cells of the human body, such as skin cells, into an embryonic and pluripotent state.

Embryome Sciences Inc believes that the licensed technologies could be advantageous in the development of human stem cell products for use in medicine and are, therefore, important advancements in the field. In addition, Embryome Sciences Inc is presently marketing cell growth media, called ESpan, in collaboration with Lifeline. ESpan is designed for the culturing of human embryonic progenitor cells using ACTCellerate technology and other sub licensed technologies.

Red Blood Cells Providing New Incentives for Advanced Cell Technology

Could red blood cells be mass-produced? Advanced Cell Technology (ACTC) is a Los Angeles, California-based company devoted to turning human embryonic stem cells into therapies. On 19 August, the journal Blood published a paper reporting the efficient production of red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells.

Lead author was Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at ACT (his co-authors are from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota). Up to 100 billion cells had been generated from a single plate of stem cells. The cells produced had oxygen-carrying abilities and physiological responses comparable to those of the cells from blood banks used in transfusions.

Advanced Cell Technology has 3 major products in the FDA Clinical Trials Pipleline: one to do with retinal repair, another with myoblast repair, after a heart attack, and the other is a hepatic (liver) repair stem cell product; this latest development puts a very obvious fourth feather in their hat....

The paper "clearly shows that stem cells could serve as an unlimited source of blood for transfusion in the future," Lanza says. "The potential here could be enormous."

"This is a major advance because it shows for the first time that these cells can be expanded; they can create [red] blood cells and they can carry oxygen," says Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "Blood therapies and blood replacement agents are an area of large need."

While the company searches for a big deal to stabilize it financially, Lanza says, "We are still going paycheck to paycheck." That's a familiar feeling for veterans of the 14-year-old company, he notes. "It's probably the fifth or sixth time we've had the phones turned off. When you get in trouble, that's your first warning." Lanza appeared with Barbara Walters on her show on April 1 to discuss in great deal the future and prospects of the specific stem cell research he directs at Advanced Cell Technology.

Although ACTC has in the FDA Clinical Trials pipeline stem cell products in three key ares (retinal respair, hepatic repair, and myoblast [after-heart attack] repair, Advanced Cell Technology has been living precariously on signing smaller licensing deals.

On 21 August, the life-sciences research company Embryome Sciences, a subsidiary of BioTime, announced a licensing agreement with ACT. Embryome, based in Alameda, California, has licensed a portfolio of patents related to virus-free induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cell differentiation technology.

Moving ACT's red blood cell method to the clinic, there are also questions about the commercial prospects for a product that would have to compete with freely donated blood.

"It's certainly a very exciting result from a scientific perspective," says Cathy Prescott, the director of Biolatris, a biotechnology and health-care consulting company in Cambridge, UK.

Thanks to the Telegraph, the London newspaper; to Medical News today (UK), and Dr. Catherine Paddock, to Embryome Press release, and to Meredith Wadman's article in Naturenews.

COCA-COLA FORGES BRAVE, NEW WORLD, and other Corporate-Serving Mendacious BS

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:05:13 EDT

Dear Obama Supporters: Please help me figure this out. I am baffled...

Why is it that journalists like this Ed Graney from the Las Vegas Review-Journal [his article follows below], and so many others like him all over the United States, collectively continue the despicable mythology of speaking so cheerily about drinking diet sodas, like it was some kind of fun
thing that they frivolously insist on sharing or foisting on their ill informed readers?

Can they really be this stupid to be so oblivious the firestorm of medical evidence accruing against Coca Cola and the Diet Sodas, because of the aspartame metabolizing into methanol and formaldehyde in every single person who consumes them, or sugarless gums like Eclipse and Orbit (try to find a Wrigley's product that doesn't have aspartame!), and the product Equal, which breaks down the aspartame before it hits your stomach, making it 5 times more neurotoxic in coffee, tea, etc.

Maybe they know all of this and are getting paid bribes by the companies involved to produce mindless little puff pieces saluting and celebrating the entire Diet Coke Culture?

I work with a group of people including physicians like H.J. Roberts, Author of Aspartame Disease: An FDA Approved Epidemic, and Russell Blaylock, Author of Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills. These are googleable; please read about them.

Our biggest firebrand and greatest inspiration is Dr. Betty Martini, D. Hum., Founder of Mission Possible International, dedicated to getting aspartame off the market all over the world. Betty keeps an entire movement of thousands of activists together, for no pay whatsoever....She was open to Obama's candidacy up to the point someone pointed out to her that about 20 years ago either Barack or his wife or both worked many years ago for the Law Firm of Ridley and Austin, who represented Monsanto, the corporation that held the patent for Aspartame after buying it from G.D. Searle, .....

I won't regale you with 5 years of articles but will ask you to take the time to read just these two:

RUMSFELD'S BIOWEAPON LEGACY AT:
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=8&contentid=2608&page=2

(Interestingly, this article has been pulled down (or knocked down by hackers?) several of the key websites on which it once appeared....

and what I wrote for the Hawaii Senate about Aspartame in the form of a genteel resolution asking the FDA to rescind its approval for the umpteen reasons included in the Resolution: this constitutes a fairly detailed and very accurate historical analysis of Aspartame, how it came on the market, and a smidgeon of the coporate lobbying and nefarious skullduggery resulting in it still being on the market, despite millions of sufferers' personal stories:

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 191, 2008 [sponsored by the Honorable Suzanne Chun Oakland, Hawaii State Senator, cosigned as sponsors by 44% of the Hawaii Senate, yet still shot down surreptitiously in the Health Committee, when Senator David Ige of Pearl City, declined to even schedule a hearing for this Resolution! The retails associations and their lobbyists were hard at work on this one, afraid that it could come up for a debate and a vote on the Senate floor.]:

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2008/Bills/SCR191_.htm

Personally, I think it is a hypocritical and ghastly joke that Coca Cola is such a big sponsor of the Olympics. They are only doing it to increase their sales in China and a few other nations, and to legitimize their infernal and deadly products in the minds of the naive, the stupid, and the very young.

I have repeatedly written articles, blogs, editorials, and comments that Obama must recognize how serious all of this is, and at the very least appoint a real consumer protectionist to be the FDA commissioner, instead of the corporate serving slug we now have.

Nixon ordered that cyclamates be taken off the market and their FDA approval rescinded.

A few years later, in 1981, Reagan (as a favor to his buddy Rumsfeld who had been passed over for Vice President, remember?) ordered the outgoing FDA to do nothing further, until the new FDA Commissioner, Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, could take his first action, to approve Aspartame, despite the FDA having turned it down for the prior 15 years.....This "earned" Donald Rumsfeld, then CEO of G.D. Searle, the patent holder, at least $15 million.

This is a vile and despicable story, one of the dirtiest and most sordid chapters in the already massively checkered history of the FDA, which I am continuing to ask Obama to put an end to when he is elected President of the United States, by Presidential Order.

Dr. Howard Dean III, M.D., will be in Santa Fe in a few days, and I hope to ask him about this further. Will keep you posted in this blog at mybarackobama.com

Truly,
Stephen Fox
Contributing Editor, Santa Fe Sun News

stephen@santafefineart.com

_________________________________________________________________________________

Aug. 18, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

OLYMPIC POSTCARD: COCA-COLA FORGES BRAVE, NEW WORLD

ED GRANEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL

I've always been a Pepsi guy. Diet Cherry. Good stuff.

But you should see what Coca-Cola has planned for the future. Any day now, a Coke Zero is going to drop right out of your iPhone.

(http://www.lvrj.com/news/27084214.html)

(http://www.reviewjournal.com/webextras/)

The company has been a sponsor of the Olympics for 80 years, and its large exhibit center here in Beijing stands near the swimming and track and field venues.

One main display is for the WE8 campaign, which is eight aluminum bottles designed by Chinese art students.

They had eight themes from which to work: active optimism, individual perseverance, uplifting moments, peace on Earth, global harmony, human collaboration, healthy world and happiness.

Once the artwork was completed, some of the world's leading musicians were asked to interpret the works through music.

The company is also testing a machine that drops your drink of choice down a chute and ice forms once you shake it a few times. I'm guessing the next machine they unveil will drink it for you.

Another exhibit is a touch-screen machine where you choose your drink from any of the WE8 bottles, and then download the design and its specific song to your cell phone. We live in an amazing world.

Top Medical Journal Advises Supreme Court not to bar Lawsuits over FDA-approved Drugs; Obama Urged to Appoint Strong Consumer Protectionist as FDA Commissioner

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:15:50 EDT

[I strongly encourage Barack Obama to clarify what kind of an FDA he wants: more of the same corporate-serving Big Pharma lackeys, or appointing a real consumer protectionist (How about Howard Dean III, M.D.?) at the helm; the FDA Commissioner over sees 25% of the US Economy, which is either Food or Drugs!-from Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor, Santa Fe Sun News...Thanks to RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR of the Associated Press: he wrote this brilliant article]

and more on Diane Levine at: http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/02/preemption-and-amputation-diana-fights-wyeth/

WASHINGTON-Top doctors at the helm of one of the nation's most influential medical journals are giving the Supreme Court some unsolicited legal advice about a major case. The Food and Drug Administration "is in no position" to guarantee drug safety, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine said in a friend-of-the-court brief.

Lawsuits can serve as "a vital deterrent" and protect consumers if drug companies don't disclose risks. At issue is Wyeth v. Levine, a case expected to be heard this fall that could have far-reaching implications for litigation over allegedly harmful drugs, such as the painkiller Vioxx.

Diana Levine, a Vermont guitarist, lost her right arm below the elbow after she was injected with Phenergan, a medicine for nausea, and developed gangrene. She sued the manufacturer, Wyeth, arguing that the company had a duty to warn consumers that such injections could have devastating consequences. The courts in her state agreed, awarding her nearly $7 million. But Wyeth appealed, countering that it was protected from such lawsuits.

It argued that the FDA's judgment could not, in effect, be overruled by a state court. FDA scientists had weighed the risks and benefits of Phenergan in approving the drug's prescribing literature, or label, as a guide for doctors. The FDA was aware of risks associated with injecting some forms of Phenergan, but the label did not specifically warn about the technique used with Levine.

Although the FDA is often called "the gold standard" in drug evaluation, the journal editors urged the justices to be skeptical. "The FDA alone simply lacks the ability to serve as the sole guarantor of drug safety," the doctors said in a brief filed Thursday.

Without the discoveries dredged up by plaintiffs' lawyers through liability litigation, "the FDA would be stripped of an essential source of information that the agency has consistently relied on when making its regulatory decisions, and the American public would be deprived of a vital deterrent against pharmaceutical company misconduct."

The medical editors joined 47 state attorneys general and two former FDA commissioners — David Kessler and Donald Kennedy — in supporting Levine's position. Kessler served in the Clinton administration and that of George H.W. Bush. Kennedy served in the Carter administration.

The case is being closely watched because earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled that manufacturers of FDA-approved medical devices were shielded from litigation in state courts.

However, David Vladeck, a lawyer representing Kessler and Kennedy, said the statute that applies to medical devices is different from the law that governs medications.

"The law in the (devices) case had a pre-emption provision," said Vladeck. "Congress has never put a pre-emption provision in the Food and Drug Act."

Nonetheless, the Bush administration is supporting Wyeth's position.

"FDA considers and approves specific labeling for a drug, and the drug manufacturer is generally barred from making unilateral changes to the FDA-approved labeling," Solicitor General Paul D. Clement wrote in the administration's brief.

But journal editor Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen said in an interview that he hoped arguments over legal distinctions would not obscure the reality that the FDA is overwhelmed trying to keep up with drug safety problems, which can range from rare but serious side effects, to shortcomings in manufacturing plants as far away as China.

"Even if the FDA is doing the best it can, it simply can't see the future clearly enough to pre-empt manufacturers from litigation," he said. "The (court) system represents one of the key defense mechanisms that individuals have if a manufacturer has not made the risks of a product clear to the public."

Cleaning House

Melody — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:22:15 EDT

Cleaning up DC should begin at the FDA. The FDA has a long history of lack of accountability, lack of transparency, incompetency and corruption.

For those of us who have followed the Provenge saga and have been fighting this injustice since May 9 2007, most, if not all the information contained here will not be news to us. My main concern is what appears to be FDA corruption and the lack of urgency by Congress to rectify the situation.

FDA v.s. FEMA which is worse?

The H.M. Press — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:52:55 EDT

you decide.

Obama Supporters/Prostate Cancer Advocates Support The Access Act

Melody — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:24:54 EDT

The Access Act is gaining support from both sides of the aisle in Congress and the Senate. Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus have just signed on. Help from the prostate cancer community in adding more co-sponsors is NEEDED. Please write your representatives and senators to request their support of the Access Act.

One of several petitions (link below) has been created that will also be sent to The Hill. It would be great to get thousands of signatures. Please sign and pass along to everyone you know. If you have a blog or web site, please post the petition on your blog and/or web site. Thank you for your support.

Click here to view and sign: http://www.petitiononline.com/access2/petition.html

To: U.S. Congress and Senate

Access, Compassion, Care, and Ethics for Seriously Ill Patients Act (S.3046 H.R.6270).

Congress now has an opportunity to help save and extend the lives of cancer patients and others with serious life-threatening illnesses, thanks to the recently introduced Access, Compassion, Care, and Ethics for Seriously Ill Patients Act.

The Access Act creates a new approval mechanism called Compassionate Investigational Access (CIA) for patients who cannot wait. Patients receiving a CIA drug must suffer from a serious or life-threatening disease, be out of approved options and unable to gain access to a clinical trial. Patients must also provide informed consent, and allow the collection of clinical data from their experience with the drug, so we will all know more about the safety and efficacy of new therapies before they are approved for wider use.

House initiating sponsor Representative Dianne Watson (D-CA): "The activism of the AIDS community in the 1990s expedited the marketing to the general public of promising antiretroviral drugs. Sadly, the expedited approval of promising new drugs for cancer patients and patients with other life-threatening diseases does not receive the same attention or expedited approval."

A clear example and one of the poster children of “decelerated” approval at the FDA is Provenge, an immunotherapy for dying men with prostate cancer. Over 30,000 men have died since the FDA decision last May to delay Provenge, citing the need for more data. Provenge has shown activity and efficacy in every one of the six trials where it has been studied including three phase three trials. The FDA looked at the phase three trial that showed the median (midpoint) survival benefit was 4.5 months but the mean (average) survival benefit was much better: 34 percent of all men receiving Provenge were alive after three years compared to 11 percent of those who did not. In the last 45 years, chemotherapy is the only medicine approved to treat terminal prostate cancer.

I urge Congress to support and pass the ACCESS Act (S.3046 H.R.6270).

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

De-regulation? Buyer Beware...

M J Taylor — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:16:41 EDT

i just want to share my thoughts on further De-regulation of our industries/systems as Sen McCain has suggested

Some call it "Big Government" But Alll I want is competent Government" you know.....

a Gornment that works........

My understanding has always been that by regulating the industries in our country, our government was protecting our citizens from those who would do us harm either thru carelessness or simple greed.

Pls note that, people, in too many instances, are easily influencesd to do the selfish or greedy thing when striving and or achieveing success. trickle down economics doesn't work because if not forced to, those at the top don't necessairly share their wealth with the masses at the bottom.....(No table scraps for you)

If not for regulation, there would be no minimum wage, someone would pay you 2.00 per hour just to cut costs.......and wouildn't provide health insurance, you couldn't get FMLA for emergency situations and preserve your job.

I would almost equate De-regulation with lawlessness.....it's like saying we've taken away most of the rules, aND ALL OF THE MONITORING TO SEE WHO IS FOLLOWING THOSE THAT ARE LEFT, NOW GO PLAY...........'nO REFS, NO WHISTLES, PLAY BALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL-----"(DOESN'T SOUND GOOD NOW HUH)

without regulation and adequate funding of our government regulators Americans are left exposed to tainted Food,

(Bush had left out funding for the FDA in his most recent budget),

until people in multiple states died from tainted tomatoes.....yes read that again, left out funding for the govt dept that over sees FOOD SAFETY IN AMERICA.....

unsafe financial markets, predatory lending programs, and con artist who are not being policed in anyway.

DURIng THE BUSH YEARS, WE HAVE HAD OUR ENRON'S AND OUR FEMA MORONS ALL GIVE GLARING EXAMPLES OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CHECKS N BALANCES THAT MAKE US a great nation and allows the USA to HAVE THE MOST TRUSTED AND STABLE FINANCIAL MARKETS IN THE WORLD, SOME OF THE SAFEST FOOD IN THE WORLD, AND EXCELLENT DISASTER RECOVERY PROGRAMS (oh sorry we get foreign aid across the ocean way befroe we can get an air drop toe the Gulf or even the mid west)

Are de-regulated, not monitored, and allowed to run amuck unchecked....those with power will use their advantage to increase their position and only their position nothing ever trickles down....and tell me what self respecting American wants a trickle down I am not afraid of hard work. I just want my government, for whom we as citizens are the biggest contributors (via taxation), to keep an eye out to be sure I am not robbed of my hard work....

i don't want to ramble so I will end with this.

Regulation as well as checks n balances are absolutely necessary if order to maintain a fair system of competition. Regulation is designed to even the playing field a bit so that none can take an unfair advantage. Regulation is absolutely necessary because even in our free market system, those with alot of resources have a distinct advantage over those with limited resources....and the primary way to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to legitimately achieve success is via "Regulation"

poverty and health

Dorothy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:30:41 EDT

Today I recieved a letter from a regional children's hospital. It quoted a recent study that indicated that fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains cost OVER $18.00 per 1000 calories while junk food with highly processed, non-nutritive ingredients like high fructose corn syrup only cost $1.76 per 1000 calories, and that while REAL food is getting more expensive, highly processed foods are getting cheaper.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are no longer locally grown - they are waxed, gassed, irradiated, packed and transported on an average of 1500 miles - and with the price of oil rocketing up over the last six years (gee, I wonder why that happened?), food costs are also rocketing. Those who are the poorest, weakest, and most vulnerable are exactly those who will NOT have access to the healthy food we so loudly tout but so silently refuse to provide to those who are hungry.

The USDA, like all the other alphabet 'watch-dog' agencies, have had their budgets slashed, their missions gutted, their staffs decimated to become corporate rubber stamps regardless of the effects on real people, real children and real elders. School lunch programs have been 'down-sized' and outsourced, commodity goods programs have been slashed and the requirements for assistance that were doubled in the mid-90's with the Clinton welfare reform act have left millions uninsured and 'food insecure" - a political dodge for wondering where the next meal is going to come from.

We have to do better than this!! We must re-invest in and reinvigorate our watchdog agencies. They need to remember that they are OUR first line of defense against corporate greed that 'adds value' (coporatese for refining the real stuff OUT) and decreasing quality to do it. USDA, EPA, FDA - ALL - need morale overhauls and workable budgets and restored staffs.

We need to have federal legislation that allows use of food assistance at local markets, which would support local farmers and provide healthier food for those who need it most.

We are not secure while our own people are sick and hungry and unemployed and struggling to hang on.

While injustice exists for one of us, none of us is secure.

We need to heal ourselves before we go telling the rest of the world how to do it.

Sen. Obama's knowledge of and poisitons on rural issues, the economy, poverty, healthcare and education will go a LONG way toward establishing the framework for healing ourselves. Patriotism is not just about war or terrorism - Patriotism is taking care of our own, in our schools, our public gathering places, and local utilities, our hospitals, our senior centers, our gardens, our farms.

This is not about what Sen. Obama can do FOR us. It is about what we can do WITH him and with each other.

Dear Mr. Future President Obama,

Rebecca from Naples, NY — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:22:30 EST

I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. I’m really excited about your campaign and its possibilities for the future. I’m one of the hundreds of thousands who have contributed to a political campaign for the first time because of you. I’ve searched for your name on YouTube, I’ve read every NYTimes editorial and listened to every public radio podcast about your campaign, I’ve counted delegates and pondered superdelegates, I daydream about who you might choose as running mate, secretary of state, attorney general… I’m amazed that there are still people in this country who aren’t yet convinced you’re the best candidate, by far.

But imagine a typical someone: mid-thirties, unmarried, in relationships time after time only to be disappointed by each one in turn. One lover cheats, one can’t let go of earlier commitments, another is completely self-absorbed. And all of them eventually lie. So when a new flirtation comes along, it’s perfectly natural to feel some apprehension along with the attraction.

That’s just how I’m feeling now. And I imagine a lot of people, of both genders, feel similarly. I’m hoping with all my heart that you become the Democratic presidential nominee, and that you subsequently kick major Republican backside in the general election. But here’s some advice for afterwards, to help keep the tarnish off the delicate relationship you will have started with the American people.

Don’t be a politician, be a government representative. Of course the Democratic Party and a lot of other factions will have helped you achieve your goal of the presidency, but never forget that your post-election responsibility is to ALL the people of the country. When you make decisions, make them for civic, moral, and honorable reasons, not political ones. In a recent New Yorker article about New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer, he replies to a question about moral guidance by saying “… the toughest decisions and the right answers to those tough decisions are still the ones that you come to when you just sit down and you say, ‘O.K., what are we trying to do?’ What are the right moral values to guide it? Ignore all the politics. Ignore the screaming and shouting.”

If you really want to change Washington, you will have to ignore the inevitable screaming and shouting that will come when you push against the status quo. Instead of talking politics, develop the 21st-century equivalent of FDR’s fireside chats and communicate directly with us, clearly, honestly, and often. Encourage the American people to get educated about the issues, not by preaching or drowning us in details, but by teaching and leading by example. In a recent interview with Bill Moyers about her recent book “The Age of American Unreason”, author Susan Jacoby said that the President’s responsibility would be better defined as “Educator-In-Chief” rather than “Commander-In-Chief”. When you embark on a new foreign policy agenda, show us the map, introduce us to the people, give us the background and the perspectives. For health-care and other domestic issues, talk to us clearly about the pros and cons of various approaches and explain your choices. Show the American people that conservation equals patriotism, consuming less does not mean giving in, and a State of the Union address can be as gripping as an episode of American Idol. Give us an avenue for feedback other than polls. Then, when you need support for change against old-school politics, come to us. From your mouth to our ears and back to our Congressional representatives. You’ve been saying that it takes working together to accomplish meaningful change, and that will continue to be true after the election as well.

Change the Bush White House of Secrets and Deception to the Obama White House of Openness and Truth. Renounce the unconstitutional Executive privileges the Bush White House has procured and exploited and bring our government back into balance. Remind Congress of their responsibility to demand accountability from all areas of government and encourage their investigations on behalf of the American people. Ferret out and squash the activities that have been going on in our intelligence and military operations that have caused us to lose the respect of the rest of the world. Publicly take action against the use of torture tactics, eradicate Blackwater-type mercenaries from our military, act in accordance with the Geneva Convention, and close Guantanamo Bay. Reconfirm that, in this democracy, we are all indeed equal under the law. Last but not least, in your cleaning, scrub deep down into the fluorescent halls of government agencies like the FCC and the FDA. Remind them of their mandate to work on behalf of the people of this country, not the business entities. Get Congress to help you, and the people will help them.

Finally, in regards to the idea of “re-branding America”, I know you’re the best one for the job. We need to reinstate confidence in American values around the world and show the rest of the world that we are one of them, and willing to listen as well as talk. Help yourself by finding as many equally hopeful and dedicated diplomats and public servants as possible, people who are wise to the ways of the world without having been jaded by them in the process.

I know this is a really tall order, and more than anyone should expect from a new affair. Don’t worry, we understand change doesn’t happen overnight, and we can be patient. But from “Day One”, you need to show your commitment in this relationship, and prove that you’re serious about working with us on this change thing. I’ll vote with my heart, then hope, watch, and wait for your call to join in.

[this is a re-post of this letter from my own website, originally dated February 18. At this current date, post-Texas and Ohio, I feel even stronger that Obama needs to focus on details and approaches and specifics for his campaign to continue to be successful. Please don't let Hillary steal the nomination through her underhanded tactics!]

Arkansas Back Scratching

Tricia — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:06:32 EST

Published on Monday, July 24, 2000 in the San Francisco ChronicleGoing Backwards:
Clinton Administration Appoints A Former Monsanto Corp. Lobbyist To Represent US Consumers On Genetically Engineered Food Issuesby Tom Abate Leading consumer and environmental groups are fuming because the Clinton administration has appointed a former Monsanto Corp. lobbyist to represent U.S. consumers on a transatlantic committee set up to avoid a trade war over genetically engineered foods.

U.S. farmers have planted millions of acres of corn and other crops that have been genetically engineered to resist pests, and the growers want to export such produce freely. But in Europe, where genetically altered crops have been dubbed Frankenfoods, governments have imposed labeling rules and safety tests that have restricted U.S. imports.

Friction between the United States and Europe over the foods issue torpedoed last year's World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Seattle and now threaten to erupt into a transatlantic trade war.

In a last-ditch effort to settle their differences, U.S. and European leaders agreed in May to create a 20-person Biotechnology Consultative Forum, representing pro and con interests on both sides of the Atlantic.

In a letter appointing the U.S. members of this advisory forum, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asked them to suggest a compromise on labeling, safety testing and other regulatory issues, and to present it to the next U.S.- European economic summit in December.

To build support for this compromise effort, the State Department asked environmental and consumer opponents of bioengineered foods to nominate their representatives to the biotech powwow.

But this gesture backfired when the State Department ignored the nomination of consumer representative Michael Hansen -- a scientist with Consumers Union -- and instead gave the post to Carol Tucker Foreman, a Capitol insider who recently took over food issues for the Consumer Federation of America after 18 years as a lobbyist.

What angered critics most is that during her lobbying days, Foreman helped Monsanto -- the firm most closely identified with genetically engineered foods -- win approval for bovine growth hormone, a chemical that stimulates milk production.

``We think it's a big mistake to appoint a person to represent consumers who's been so closely tied to the biotech industry,'' said Dan Seligman, the Sierra Club's representative on trade issues.

A U.S. government official, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the State Department is aware of the flap created by Foreman's appointment but believes the committee -- which includes Norman Borlaug, the father of the ``green revolution'' -- represents ``a broad range of civil society.''

Foreman, 62, was on vacation, and associates at the Consumer Federation of America said she could not be reached for comment.

But federation Executive Director Stephen Brobeck called it ``absurd'' to suggest that Foreman, who has worked on Capitol Hill for 40 years, would be beholden to Monsanto because she did some ``modest consulting'' for the company five years ago.

``I would challenge anyone to identify any statement or action since she's returned to CFA that did not serve the public interest,'' Brobeck said. ``People in this town move between the private, public and nonprofit sector all the time.''

Foreman's career exemplifies Capitol Hill's revolving door.

An Arkansas native, Foreman came to Washington in 1961 as a Senate staffer, became executive director of the Consumer Federation of America in the early 1970s and was appointed an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Carter administration.

In her government role, Foreman earned praise and criticism from consumer colleagues. Foreman helped persuade Congress to eliminate a co-payment requirement that had kept millions of people from getting food stamps. But she also relaxed poultry inspection rules that favored big chicken farmers like Arkansas' Tyson Foods.

But what really irked critics is what Foreman did after she left USDA in 1981 to form her own lobbying firm. In addition to helping Monsanto get USDA approval for bovine growth hormone, she also lobbied for Olestra, Procter & Gamble's fat substitute, and consulted with tobacco giant Philip Morris.

Critics concede that Foreman's corporate involvements never damaged her Democratic Party credentials and marvel at how her Arkansas roots

--her brother is Jim Guy Tucker, the former Arkansas governor and Whitewater figure -- enhanced her access in the Clinton administration.

``It didn't surprise me at all when the White House nominated her to this international committee,'' said John Stauber, co-founder of the Center for Media and Democracy, a Madison, Wis., nonprofit that tracks lobbyists.

``She's trusted and tight with the Democratic Party, she isn't threatening to industry and she has managed to retain consumer credentials,'' Stauber said. ``Who better to try to smooth over these differences (between Europe and the United States) and make the world safe for the export of genetically engineered foods?''

A source close to the transatlantic commission said Foreman was chosen because she is a pragmatic dealmaker who is more interested in compromise than confrontation.

Some of Foreman's critics also seem to prefer that the transatlantic compromise effort fail. Lori Wallach, a trade specialist with Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said if U.S.-European differences over genetically engineered foods spark a trade war, it could topple the entire WTO framework which, in her view, favors corporate profits over worker and consumer interests.

Meanwhile, those who want the commission to achieve a compromise are running out of time. The first meeting of the transatlantic forum probably won't occur until September because many of the European members are on vacation.

``My hope for the forum is to bring the United States around to regulatory approval and labeling policies that are more consistent with the European policies,'' said Rebecca Goldburg, a scientist with Environmental Defense, a nonprofit advocacy group. Goldburg was appointed by the State Department to fill the environmental slot on the transatlantic committee.

``But we have an incredibly broad charge and a limited amount of time,'' she said.

FDA has a Backlog of 27 years

JuanE. — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:49:12 EST

Bush has broken and underfund the FDA so much that if it tackled all of the projects on their plate, it would take them 27 years to complete with their current resources. I have been phone banking and people are very concerned with items coming in from overseas that have not been tested adequately. Read New York Times story at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/washington/29fda.html?ex=1202274000&en=a1f80031b7d65da9&ei=5070

An Average American's Thoughts on Healthcare

Ryan — Wed, 02 May 2007 23:55:36 EDT

First, I was amazed to find out that a friend from Sweden receives low cost healthcare and educational benefits. The catch is that Swedish citizens pay hefty taxes on income, goods, and services. However, the people of Stockholm seem to live nice lives. The question is would Americans accept more taxes for similar healthcare and educational benefits I would. At least my tax dollars would fund the most basic human rights we have instead of funding the will of the political elite. Of course, I am an average American but in order to change our healthcare system we may have to start with the FDA and drug makers. The FDA and drug makers need are to be held accountable for their actions that are detrimental to American i.e. outrageous costs for medicines and political agendas on what medications are approved for administration. Next, something is fundamentally wrong with our insurance providers. I could not possibly list all of those wrongs but feel free to share your experiences. Finally, I feel that its time for the average American to rise and be heard. The dollar should not rule and move our government.

Senate considers new FDA Drug-Safety system.

John H. Frenster, M.D. — Tue, 01 May 2007 11:35:56 EDT

U.S. Senate to Consider Measure For New FDA Drug-Safety System

By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN
April 30, 2007 2:33 p.m.

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to start debating a bill Monday that would require the Food and Drug Administration to establish a safety system to monitor new drugs for at least three years after they have been approved.

Such provisions aimed at boosting drug safety are part of a broader bill of Sens. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) and Michael Enzi (R., Wyo.) that would renew a law allowing the FDA to collect fees from pharmaceutical and medical-device companies to help fund the agency.

A Senate panel approved the bill earlier this month on a 15-5 vote with Republicans split on the bill. While staff for Messrs. Kennedy and Enzi are trying to limit the number of amendments that might come up, as of late Friday no deal had been reached. An Enzi spokesman said there were several amendments on the Republican side that could be offered. Most Senate staffers involved in the legislation expect the bill to be on Senate floor all week.

A federal law that authorizes the FDA to charge industry user fees expires Sept. 30, the end of the 2007 fiscal year. The Kennedy-Enzi bill, known as the FDA Revitalization Act, would renew the law through 2012. User fees fund part of the FDA's annual budget. The fees are collected, for example, when companies file applications to the agency seeking approval of new products.

The fact that the user-fee law expires this year makes it almost certain that Congress will include tougher drug-safety provisions as part of a final bill renewing the fees. Many of the drug-safety provisions were introduced as separate pieces of legislation amid congressional criticism about whether the FDA should have done more and sooner to warn consumers about the risks of the painkiller Vioxx. Merck & Co. pulled Vioxx off the market in 2004 after the drug was tied to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Any FDA bill that passes the Senate must eventually be reconciled with a yet-to-be introduced bill in the House that would renew user-fee laws.

The FDA Revitalization Act also renews another law that gives drug companies incentives to conduct research on drugs for children. The bulk of drugs on the U.S. market were developed for adult consumption.

The main drug-safety component in the Kennedy-Enzi bill is a risk-management program involving formal surveillance of medicines for three years after they are approved.

It would require the FDA to review the safety profile of all new chemical entities or new types of drugs at 18 months and then three years after they are approved. Under the program, the FDA would have access to public and private databases that track, among other things, reports of side-effects in patients. Other drugs, such as those currently on the market but subsequently approved to treat another illness, would be also reviewed for three years once they are approved for alternative use.

During Senate panel debate on the bill earlier this month, Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.) said he wasn't opposed to setting up a surveillance system but said he didn't think all new drugs needed to first go into a formal risk-mitigation system.

Since 1992, the FDA has raised some funding by charging fees to both medical-device and drug companies. The rest of its budget is funded through money appropriated by Congress.

The FDA has proposed collecting $393 million from pharmaceutical companies next year, but the Kennedy-Enzi bill would increase that amount by $50 million. The bill would also authorize the FDA to collect about $287 million in fees from medical-device firms over the next five years.

It also authorizes more money and gives the FDA more power to review television advertisements for drugs before they are aired. Many companies already voluntarily allow the agency to preview commercials before they are aired.

Critics of the provisions, like Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kansas), have said the advertising provisions could allow the FDA to block companies from advertising their drugs, in violation of the Constitution's free-speech clause.

During panel debate on the measure, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D., N.Y.) agreed then to hold off on trying to add a bill that would establish a pathway for the FDA to approve generic copies of expensive biotech drugs made from proteins. However, she said she wanted the issue addressed before the broader FDA bill went to the floor. Mrs. Clinton's office didn't return a call seeking comment on whether the lawmaker would attempt to add generic legislation this week. Messrs. Kennedy and Enzi have each said they would prefer to move the biotech generic legislation as a separate bill later this year.

The Kennedy-Enzi bill also mandates companies to register clinical studies of drugs in a public database as well as make all the results available.

FDA rejects new Vioxx-like drug from Merck & Company.

John H. Frenster, M.D. — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:02:25 EDT

Published in WSJ, Friday, April 27, 2007

FDA Rejects Merck's Request To Market Arcoxia in U.S.

By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN April 27, 2007 12:02 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration rejected Arcoxia, a Vioxx-like drug by Merck & Co., the company said Friday.

Merck was seeking FDA approval of Arcoxia, a drug that falls into the same class as Vioxx, to treat osteoarthritis. Vioxx was pulled off the market in September 2004 after it was linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Merck said the FDA issued Arcoxia a "non-approvable" letter stating the company would need to provide additional data in support of the benefit-to-risk profile for the proposed doses of Arcoxia in order to gain approval.

The FDA's decision was expected. Earlier this month an outside panel of medical experts voted 20 to 1 against approval of the drug amid concerns it raises the risks of heart attacks and strokes.

"We are disappointed with today's decision," said Peter S. Kim, president, Merck Research Laboratories. "We pursued FDA approval of Arcoxia because we believe strongly that new medicines are needed for patients whose osteoarthritis pain is inadequately managed with currently available therapies."

Arcoxia, considered a Cox-2 drug, is on the market in 63 other countries and Merck said it would continue marketing the drug outside the U.S.

Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex is the only Cox-2 on the U.S. market. In 2005, the FDA asked Pfizer to pull its other Cox-2 drug, Bextra, off the market as well as strengthen warnings on Celebrex. Cox-2s were designed to be easier on the stomach than older anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen and naproxen. NSAIDs inhibit the both Cox-2 and Cox-1 enzymes in order to cut pain, however Cox-1 is also related to stomach functioning.

The FDA has said it assumes all prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen and naproxen, carry an increased risk of cardiovascular problems. Drugs such as Celebrex and Arcoxia, also fall into the broader NSAID class. The agency said proposed prescription painkillers should fill an unmet medical need for patients who have no other "relatively safer" alternatives.

Merck shares fell 43 cents to $52 on volume of 1.6 million.

Pet food recall??

Kiko — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:35:18 EDT

It's been more than a month since the pet food recall was first announced. I'd like to hear Senator Obama's comments on this safety issue. Specifically, I would like to know what plans he has for the FDA and ensuring our food safety.