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Friday, June 04, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Consuming Chemicals : Rethinking What We Heat, Serve and Eat (By Sarah (Steve) Mosko, Ph.D.)
Consuming Chemicals : Rethinking What We Heat, Serve and Eat (By Sarah (Steve) Mosko, Ph.D.)
What do breast milk, food cans, microwave popcorn, and fast-food French fry boxes have in common with meat, fish and dairy products? They’re all avenues of human ingestion of potentially harmful chemicals associated with everyday plastics.
Although the jury is still out on what levels of exposure are unsafe, it is indisputable that we all consume chemicals from plastics on a daily basis.
What do breast milk, food cans, microwave popcorn, and fast-food French fry boxes have in common with meat, fish and dairy products? They’re all avenues of human ingestion of potentially harmful chemicals associated with everyday plastics.
 |
| BPA is a key ingredient of the epoxy resin that lines metal food cans and jar lids. |
Biomonitoring projects like Environmental Working Group’s 2005 BodyBurden study of cord blood in neonates and the Mind, Disrupted investigation of blood and urine in adults representing the learning and developmental disabilities community published in February 2010—consistently find neurotoxic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals used in common plastics among the substances routinely tainting human tissues. Although diet is not the only route of exposure, it is a major one.
Given that developing fetuses and young children are most vulnerable to environmental toxins, understanding how exposure occurs through ordinary diets, and how to avoid it, has become a growing societal concern.
Three constituents of common plastics that find their way into food or drinks are described below, all linked to ill health effects in humans and lab animals. In the Mind, Disrupted study, the subjects universally tested positive for all three: bisphenol-A, brominated flame retardants, and perfluorinated compounds. The variety of avenues into the human diet is surprising.
Bisphenol-A
Originally synthesized a century ago as a synthetic estrogen, bisphenol-A (BPA) was utilized instead to make baby bottles, reusable water bottles, and food storage containers upon discovery that polymerization produced clear, shatter-proof plastics dubbed polycarbonates. It’s also a key ingredient of the epoxy resin that lines metal food cans and jar lids, including infant formula.
Over 90% of Americans have BPA in their urine, according to the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) of the U.S. population. Young children generally have the highest levels because they lack an enzyme that breaks down BPA. Leaching of BPA from containers into food and beverages is thought to be the main route of exposure.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a now outdated safe exposure standard of <50ug/kg/day>
Responding to the newer findings, the National Toxicology Program Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction released a monograph in September 2008 admitting “some concern” that current levels of exposure in fetuses, infants and children may result in developmental changes in the brain, prostate and behavior. In January 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted its support for voluntary moves by industry to both stop selling BPA-containing baby bottles and feeding cups and develop alternatives to BPA-lined infant formula cans, but it stopped short of recommending bans on BPA or that parents change use of infant formula or foods.
Only Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin have passed laws banning BPA in children’s foodware and drinkware.
Brominated Flame Retardants
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are a family of flame retardants in widespread use in consumer products, including plastics for electronics and electrical devices. Because PBDEs are not permanently bonded to the plastic polymers, they migrate out into the environment.
Properties of PBDEs include resistance to biodegradation and affinity for fats, allowing them to persist in the environment and bioaccumulate in the food web. PBDEs were found in nearly 100% of blood samples in the 2003-2004 NHANES survey. Consumption of meat, fish and dairy products is thought to be a primary route of exposure.
However, it was the discovery of infant exposure to PBDEs via rising levels in human breast milk in the United States and Europe that set off a chorus of alarm about health risks to humans.
PBDEs have been marketed in the United States in three commercial mixtures, so-called penta, octa and deca formulations. Because of animal data linking penta and octa to serious health impairments—including liver, thyroid and reproductive toxicity and especially developmental neurotoxicity—domestic manufacture of penta and octa was voluntarily phased out in 2004. However, levels of penta and octa in humans continue to rise, attributable in part to widespread use of deca which can break down into other forms.
In December 2009, the EPA outlined an action plan to reduce human exposure to PBDEs which recommended only a voluntary phase out of deca in lieu of a federal restriction. California is among 11 states that have enacted bans on penta and octa.
However, even public health-advocacy organizations that support phase-out of all PBDEs, like Environmental Working Group, do not recommend that parents stop breastfeeding because of breastfeeding’s positive impact on other measures of infant well-being.
Perfluorinated Compounds
Perfluorinated Compounds (PFCs) are synthetic polymers that find their way into food applications because they repel oils and water. They are the key ingredient of grease/water-resistant coatings on non-stick cookware (e.g. Teflon®), pizza boxes, microwave popcorn, and fast-food wrappers.
The most studied PFCs are PFOA (perfluorooctanoate) and PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonate) which are known to persist seemingly indefinitely once released into the environment and consequently build up in the food web. They also persist in human tissues: The half-life of PFOA and PFOS in human blood is roughly four to five years, according to a 2007 study of retirees of a PFC manufacturing facility.
Ninety-eight percent of the blood samples in the 2003-2004 NHANES project contained PFOA and PFOS. Breast milk contaminated with PFOA and PFOS was detected in 98% of Massachusetts women participating in a 2004 study. Dietary intake of meat, fish and dairy products is thought to be a major route of exposure along with consumption of foods contaminated through contact with grease/water-resistant packaging (e.g. fast foods).
Non-stick cookware, when heated to high temperatures, has also been shown to release substances that might taint foods per tests performed by Environmental Working Group.
The list of potential health effects linked to PFCs in human and animals studies is long and includes cancers, high cholesterol, liver and developmental toxicity, thyroid hormone disruption and infertility.
No U.S. jurisdiction has yet limited the used of PFOA or PFOS in food contact substances.
CONTACT: Mind, Disrupted.
SARAH (STEVE) MOSKO, PH.D., is an environmental writer living in California who blogs at Boogie Green
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Pure Water, Pure Consciousness: Finding a Water Filter That Works
Pure Water, Pure Consciousness: Finding a Water Filter That Works
To understand something as important and beautiful as pure water we need to understand consciousness because pure consciousness and pure water have many things in common. Though absolute, pure water does not exist outside of a laboratory except as a concept, pure consciousness is not a concept, but it is rarely experienced or perceived in its pure form.
"Ask yourself what the world's most precious commodity is, and you might say gold; you might say diamonds. You'd be wrong on both counts. The answer is water. If by "most precious" we mean what's most desired by most people, nothing comes close to water -- fresh, clean water, that is." - Michael McCarthy
Pure consciousness, what is that? It is much easier to say what it isn't than what it is. If we sit down in meditation and relax until we do not feel our bodies, then slow our minds down till there are no more thoughts to think, and calm our hearts until there is no more emotion, no feeling, no hearing, and no images in our imagination, what do we have left? Nothing but our very own pure consciousness; pure awareness is what is left and this is the foundation of everything that we are.
Water and consciousness are both remarkable substances. Water for example, although we drink it, wash with it, fish and swim in it, and cook with it, we tend to overlook the special relationship it has with our lives. Without water, we would die within a week. Now consider pure consciousness, without it we die in a nano-second. We use it all the time for the most basic life processes, to think, imagine, feel, plan, touch, taste, see and hear with, yet we pay it no attention.
Pure consciousness is an idea that a physicist would be more comfortable with because the best comparison to it would be the black light of space. We normally look up into the nighttime sky and see the blackness of space in-between the stars thinking that space is absent of light. Such thoughts are foolish because in each square centimeter of black space is all the light of the universe. So intensely full of light is space that we cannot see it because it would burn our retina in an instant.
Most of us are not familiar with the dynamics of our own consciousness nor do we bother to train ourselves in meditation to perceive the pure light within for it is an intensely dynamic space that is difficult to pin down. In that space we call pure consciousness, even one thought crashes us out of it, like being kicked out of heaven. But back we can go when we re-silence the mind, which we can do if we train ourselves to do it.
As it is with consciousness it is with water. Anything added makes it impure. One very small drop of mercury will destroy many gallons of pure water, polluting it terribly. The pure is highly vulnerable to the impure. This is the most basic similarity between water and consciousness as is the fact that both immediately take the shape of anything. The thought arises in consciousness and consciousness takes the exact shape of the thought. Water will fit into any vessel and it will accommodate any chemical, any poison, any heavy metal in its breast. Dirty water and dirty consciousness seem like cousins and they are. Those who would dirty our waters by adding poisons to the water like fluoride are dirty and indecent in their consciousness as well. And those who would sell us filtering equipment that does not remove this cancer-causing agent are playing a game that puts their commercial interests above their responsibility to protect our children and ourselves from harm.
We are water and we are consciousness and the purer we can keep both the better off we are. To ensure our families the best health possible we have to be dedicated. We have to invest our consciousness in subjects like water and learn to be wise about it. So many of us take our water for granted just as we take our consciousness for granted.
"Each year in the U.S., lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disorders in children and 560,000 cases of hypertension in adult males." - U.S. EPA
The cost of distancing ourselves from the purity of consciousness and the purity of water are astronomical. Only when we care about purity will we really contemplate on our absolute need for the purest water possible. When we do sit down and concentrate our consciousness on pure water we come to see it as a powerful medicine for prevention and treatment of disease.
"In 1994 and 1995, 45 million Americans drank water from water systems that fell short of SDWA standards." - Environmental Protection Agency
Pure water is a most basic medicine though it can contain health and life giving substances like magnesium and calcium and still be considered pure, at least by the meaning we are putting out here. It is the same with pure consciousness as well. A person can be in touch with their pure consciousness and this does not mean that the person will never have a thought running through their brain.
The funny thing about pure water is that it can be full of impurities and still look pure. That's why we can so easily deceive ourselves and drink life destroying water from our taps, wells, and yes even bottled water. And we find the same in human consciousness. A person can be all dressed up in lily white garments and say all the right words and behave most of the time correctly yet still hurt people.
The pure water that we will be studying, achievable through various treatment/filtering approaches, is dynamic and is dependent on water inputted into our filtering systems and what we do to that water. As with consciousness, it is with water. We need to understand the impurities to reach understanding of the pure. When it comes to our approach to the best water possible we have to pay attention even to what we store the water in. Plastic, as we will see, is just the next disaster waiting to happen to our water, our lives and to the ecology of the entire planet. The chances of water remaining pure stored in some kinds of plastic are close to zero.
"35% of the reported gastrointestinal illnesses among tap water drinkers were water related and preventable." - Center For Disease Control
Some scientists believe that for every outbreak of poisoning from water reported in the United States, another ten may be occurring. One such study found that as many as one in three gastrointestinal illnesses -- often chalked up to "stomach flu" -- are caused by drinking water contaminated with microorganisms. It was only ten years ago that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the EPA advised that people with weakened immune systems should consult with their doctors and consider boiling their drinking water to kill any cryptosporidium.
Detoxification is probably the single most important component to long-term health and this has become increasingly true each year, as environmental chemicals have built up all around us. Successful detoxification and chelation are totally dependent on an adequate intake of good water. Water is our body's only means of flushing out toxins. The more water we drink, and the purer and more alkaline that water is, the more we allow our body to purify itself.
Since almost all degenerative diseases are the result of toxins, water becomes and is the most basic and essential medicine we have to employ. Thus the quality of the water we drink is equally as important as the amount. If water already contains chlorine and other chemicals‚ it has less of an ability to carry toxins out of our body. If we consume water that contains traces of synthetic chemicals‚ then we force our liver and kidneys to be the filter. It makes much more sense, if we care about our health, to externalize the filtering of water with one of the three basic types of filtering systems widely available. Instead of ultimately damaging or destroying our liver and kidneys and destroying healthy cell environments we let the filters do the work for us. Money is well spent on filtering our water. Bottled water, on the other hand, is a poor and insecure substitute for the care we must individually put into our own water supplies. With an abundant intake of clean‚ healthy water we allow our body to perform all the healing processes that it is naturally capable of and this makes all the difference in the world with all the other medical or naturopathic treatments we employ.
When you bring things down to the very simple level of the pure it becomes crystal clear that healing is about bringing a person back to a relatively purer state. What it comes down to is this. What do you think would be better when you are sick and run down? What would you put down your throat, some poison or something pure in its ability to cleanse you of the impure? In reality there are many people who think a little poison will do the trick. Most of these people who believe this are of course doctors, dentists and nurses and hundreds of millions of people who worship at the allopathic alter and have no problem swallowing the toxic drugs and medicated water recommended to them.
"Unhealthy drinking water affects children in different ways than it does adults. There is cause for special concern for the health of children who do." - Natural Resources Defense Council
Water is what we make it out to be; for we as a society pollute and treat it and we are the ones who can treat it again inside of our own homes. We can protect our family and drink pure healthy water but to do this we have to treat the water ourselves. Most people buy a cheap carbon filter and think they're protected when they are not. If we are using tap water, no matter where in the world we live, it is safe to assume that every time we go to the faucet for a drink or take a shower we are taking toxins into our bodies. Point-of-use water treatments systems today (filtration, Reverse Osmosis, Distilled) are extremely viable and readily available means by which water of extremely high quality can be provided. In today's world with water supplies being what they are, any good home based water treatment method is much better than no treatment at all. When we get into comparing one type of water processing system with another, disagreements break out about which is the best or healthiest water to drink.
"As to carbon filtered and reverse osmosis (RO) water, these are better solutions than tap water or mineral water, however they still fall far short of the standard set by distilled water." - Dr. Ron Kennedy
If we consider that a good carbon filtration system can remove above 95 percent of all water impurities, we can consider them as a viable and convenient option. Yes reverse osmosis and distilled water will be purer and thus in need of some kind of re-mineralization treatment for optimal healthy water. Filters can be used with confidence as long as one does not push the life cycle of the carbon and one's selection of filter takes out most of the fluoride, which many do not.
When it comes to water, we cannot afford to be lazy. We have to take a good look at what is in our local water supply and decide what we are going to do about it. We cannot allow our public water officials to pull a rug over our eyes. We cannot afford to fall back on crude beliefs and basic assumptions but have to examine all sides of the issue and look into the facts. It's a fact that William K. Reilly, Administrator of the EPA under the first Bush Administration, classified drinking water contamination among the top four public health risks posed by environmental problems.
Why don't we hear our present health and medical officials warning us about our water? Some experts estimate that 560,000 people become moderately to severely ill each year from consuming contaminated water. About 10,700 bladder and rectal cancers each year may be associated with Trihalomethanes (THMs) in the water and their chemical cousins. That translates into about thirty cancers per day and that estimate is from fifteen years ago or when there were literally billions of tons less of chemical poisons in the environment. All we hear from the CDC is their fears of the bird flu to justify even more vaccines with which to poison the public with.
When it comes to the concept of pure water, it is just accepted that nothing can compete with distilled water for purity but some RO systems do come quite close. But some doctors, despite the fact that distilled water has been used by spas around the world for serious detoxification programs, complain that going for 100 percent purity with water has its disadvantages. The worst option is to drink tap water with the second worst option being bottled water sold in plastic.
Dr. Masaru Emoto has demonstrated that the relationship between water and consciousness is not a joke. Dr. Emoto took samples of water from various sources, froze a few droplets, examined them under a dark field microscope and photographed them. He experimented first with water from a pure source in Japan. The picture revealed a beautiful crystalline form. He then did the same thing with water from a nearby-polluted river. The result was a muddy, smeared pattern with very little structure. He then asked a priest from a temple to offer a prayer to the polluted water sample and repeated the experiment out of curiosity. To his surprise, another beautiful crystalline structure appeared. The Crystalline structure produced by "Thank you" in Japanese and the crystalline structure produced by "You make me sick, I will kill you." strikingly showed the difference in their final form.
To deal effectively with pure water, we in fact have to become the manager of our own water treatment plant. After all who are we going to trust? Those who put poisons like chloramines and fluoride into the water or ourselves? To take responsibility for our own water is an important act of love. Pure consciousness and purified water are bound together by love. It is the unloving among us that pollute our waters and the indecent who deliberately put poisons into the waters thinking they are doing us all a favor.
It is our obligation to strive for the purest water possible. Deciding what system is best for our needs is a very individual and personal process and there is no filtering system that is best for everyone. If we want pure water we have to put our devotion to it, our spirit, and some financial resources but we shall be surprised at how little a reasonably good system can cost. In a world with inequalities of wealth, we have to pause and consider what we can afford in time, energy and financial resources. Very few can afford the kind of systems that can handle every problem with water but for very little we can do some amazing things to the water we drink.
Note: Beware of the quick and uninformed opinion about water. There is tremendous disagreement here as everywhere. Everyone in the water business is going to try to sell you something. - Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
To understand something as important and beautiful as pure water we need to understand consciousness because pure consciousness and pure water have many things in common. Though absolute, pure water does not exist outside of a laboratory except as a concept, pure consciousness is not a concept, but it is rarely experienced or perceived in its pure form.
"Ask yourself what the world's most precious commodity is, and you might say gold; you might say diamonds. You'd be wrong on both counts. The answer is water. If by "most precious" we mean what's most desired by most people, nothing comes close to water -- fresh, clean water, that is." - Michael McCarthy
Pure consciousness, what is that? It is much easier to say what it isn't than what it is. If we sit down in meditation and relax until we do not feel our bodies, then slow our minds down till there are no more thoughts to think, and calm our hearts until there is no more emotion, no feeling, no hearing, and no images in our imagination, what do we have left? Nothing but our very own pure consciousness; pure awareness is what is left and this is the foundation of everything that we are.
Water and consciousness are both remarkable substances. Water for example, although we drink it, wash with it, fish and swim in it, and cook with it, we tend to overlook the special relationship it has with our lives. Without water, we would die within a week. Now consider pure consciousness, without it we die in a nano-second. We use it all the time for the most basic life processes, to think, imagine, feel, plan, touch, taste, see and hear with, yet we pay it no attention.
Pure consciousness is an idea that a physicist would be more comfortable with because the best comparison to it would be the black light of space. We normally look up into the nighttime sky and see the blackness of space in-between the stars thinking that space is absent of light. Such thoughts are foolish because in each square centimeter of black space is all the light of the universe. So intensely full of light is space that we cannot see it because it would burn our retina in an instant.
Most of us are not familiar with the dynamics of our own consciousness nor do we bother to train ourselves in meditation to perceive the pure light within for it is an intensely dynamic space that is difficult to pin down. In that space we call pure consciousness, even one thought crashes us out of it, like being kicked out of heaven. But back we can go when we re-silence the mind, which we can do if we train ourselves to do it.
As it is with consciousness it is with water. Anything added makes it impure. One very small drop of mercury will destroy many gallons of pure water, polluting it terribly. The pure is highly vulnerable to the impure. This is the most basic similarity between water and consciousness as is the fact that both immediately take the shape of anything. The thought arises in consciousness and consciousness takes the exact shape of the thought. Water will fit into any vessel and it will accommodate any chemical, any poison, any heavy metal in its breast. Dirty water and dirty consciousness seem like cousins and they are. Those who would dirty our waters by adding poisons to the water like fluoride are dirty and indecent in their consciousness as well. And those who would sell us filtering equipment that does not remove this cancer-causing agent are playing a game that puts their commercial interests above their responsibility to protect our children and ourselves from harm.
We are water and we are consciousness and the purer we can keep both the better off we are. To ensure our families the best health possible we have to be dedicated. We have to invest our consciousness in subjects like water and learn to be wise about it. So many of us take our water for granted just as we take our consciousness for granted.
"Each year in the U.S., lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disorders in children and 560,000 cases of hypertension in adult males." - U.S. EPA
The cost of distancing ourselves from the purity of consciousness and the purity of water are astronomical. Only when we care about purity will we really contemplate on our absolute need for the purest water possible. When we do sit down and concentrate our consciousness on pure water we come to see it as a powerful medicine for prevention and treatment of disease.
"In 1994 and 1995, 45 million Americans drank water from water systems that fell short of SDWA standards." - Environmental Protection Agency
Pure water is a most basic medicine though it can contain health and life giving substances like magnesium and calcium and still be considered pure, at least by the meaning we are putting out here. It is the same with pure consciousness as well. A person can be in touch with their pure consciousness and this does not mean that the person will never have a thought running through their brain.
The funny thing about pure water is that it can be full of impurities and still look pure. That's why we can so easily deceive ourselves and drink life destroying water from our taps, wells, and yes even bottled water. And we find the same in human consciousness. A person can be all dressed up in lily white garments and say all the right words and behave most of the time correctly yet still hurt people.
The pure water that we will be studying, achievable through various treatment/filtering approaches, is dynamic and is dependent on water inputted into our filtering systems and what we do to that water. As with consciousness, it is with water. We need to understand the impurities to reach understanding of the pure. When it comes to our approach to the best water possible we have to pay attention even to what we store the water in. Plastic, as we will see, is just the next disaster waiting to happen to our water, our lives and to the ecology of the entire planet. The chances of water remaining pure stored in some kinds of plastic are close to zero.
"35% of the reported gastrointestinal illnesses among tap water drinkers were water related and preventable." - Center For Disease Control
Some scientists believe that for every outbreak of poisoning from water reported in the United States, another ten may be occurring. One such study found that as many as one in three gastrointestinal illnesses -- often chalked up to "stomach flu" -- are caused by drinking water contaminated with microorganisms. It was only ten years ago that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the EPA advised that people with weakened immune systems should consult with their doctors and consider boiling their drinking water to kill any cryptosporidium.
Detoxification is probably the single most important component to long-term health and this has become increasingly true each year, as environmental chemicals have built up all around us. Successful detoxification and chelation are totally dependent on an adequate intake of good water. Water is our body's only means of flushing out toxins. The more water we drink, and the purer and more alkaline that water is, the more we allow our body to purify itself.
Since almost all degenerative diseases are the result of toxins, water becomes and is the most basic and essential medicine we have to employ. Thus the quality of the water we drink is equally as important as the amount. If water already contains chlorine and other chemicals‚ it has less of an ability to carry toxins out of our body. If we consume water that contains traces of synthetic chemicals‚ then we force our liver and kidneys to be the filter. It makes much more sense, if we care about our health, to externalize the filtering of water with one of the three basic types of filtering systems widely available. Instead of ultimately damaging or destroying our liver and kidneys and destroying healthy cell environments we let the filters do the work for us. Money is well spent on filtering our water. Bottled water, on the other hand, is a poor and insecure substitute for the care we must individually put into our own water supplies. With an abundant intake of clean‚ healthy water we allow our body to perform all the healing processes that it is naturally capable of and this makes all the difference in the world with all the other medical or naturopathic treatments we employ.
When you bring things down to the very simple level of the pure it becomes crystal clear that healing is about bringing a person back to a relatively purer state. What it comes down to is this. What do you think would be better when you are sick and run down? What would you put down your throat, some poison or something pure in its ability to cleanse you of the impure? In reality there are many people who think a little poison will do the trick. Most of these people who believe this are of course doctors, dentists and nurses and hundreds of millions of people who worship at the allopathic alter and have no problem swallowing the toxic drugs and medicated water recommended to them.
"Unhealthy drinking water affects children in different ways than it does adults. There is cause for special concern for the health of children who do." - Natural Resources Defense Council
Water is what we make it out to be; for we as a society pollute and treat it and we are the ones who can treat it again inside of our own homes. We can protect our family and drink pure healthy water but to do this we have to treat the water ourselves. Most people buy a cheap carbon filter and think they're protected when they are not. If we are using tap water, no matter where in the world we live, it is safe to assume that every time we go to the faucet for a drink or take a shower we are taking toxins into our bodies. Point-of-use water treatments systems today (filtration, Reverse Osmosis, Distilled) are extremely viable and readily available means by which water of extremely high quality can be provided. In today's world with water supplies being what they are, any good home based water treatment method is much better than no treatment at all. When we get into comparing one type of water processing system with another, disagreements break out about which is the best or healthiest water to drink.
"As to carbon filtered and reverse osmosis (RO) water, these are better solutions than tap water or mineral water, however they still fall far short of the standard set by distilled water." - Dr. Ron Kennedy
If we consider that a good carbon filtration system can remove above 95 percent of all water impurities, we can consider them as a viable and convenient option. Yes reverse osmosis and distilled water will be purer and thus in need of some kind of re-mineralization treatment for optimal healthy water. Filters can be used with confidence as long as one does not push the life cycle of the carbon and one's selection of filter takes out most of the fluoride, which many do not.
When it comes to water, we cannot afford to be lazy. We have to take a good look at what is in our local water supply and decide what we are going to do about it. We cannot allow our public water officials to pull a rug over our eyes. We cannot afford to fall back on crude beliefs and basic assumptions but have to examine all sides of the issue and look into the facts. It's a fact that William K. Reilly, Administrator of the EPA under the first Bush Administration, classified drinking water contamination among the top four public health risks posed by environmental problems.
Why don't we hear our present health and medical officials warning us about our water? Some experts estimate that 560,000 people become moderately to severely ill each year from consuming contaminated water. About 10,700 bladder and rectal cancers each year may be associated with Trihalomethanes (THMs) in the water and their chemical cousins. That translates into about thirty cancers per day and that estimate is from fifteen years ago or when there were literally billions of tons less of chemical poisons in the environment. All we hear from the CDC is their fears of the bird flu to justify even more vaccines with which to poison the public with.
When it comes to the concept of pure water, it is just accepted that nothing can compete with distilled water for purity but some RO systems do come quite close. But some doctors, despite the fact that distilled water has been used by spas around the world for serious detoxification programs, complain that going for 100 percent purity with water has its disadvantages. The worst option is to drink tap water with the second worst option being bottled water sold in plastic.
Dr. Masaru Emoto has demonstrated that the relationship between water and consciousness is not a joke. Dr. Emoto took samples of water from various sources, froze a few droplets, examined them under a dark field microscope and photographed them. He experimented first with water from a pure source in Japan. The picture revealed a beautiful crystalline form. He then did the same thing with water from a nearby-polluted river. The result was a muddy, smeared pattern with very little structure. He then asked a priest from a temple to offer a prayer to the polluted water sample and repeated the experiment out of curiosity. To his surprise, another beautiful crystalline structure appeared. The Crystalline structure produced by "Thank you" in Japanese and the crystalline structure produced by "You make me sick, I will kill you." strikingly showed the difference in their final form.
To deal effectively with pure water, we in fact have to become the manager of our own water treatment plant. After all who are we going to trust? Those who put poisons like chloramines and fluoride into the water or ourselves? To take responsibility for our own water is an important act of love. Pure consciousness and purified water are bound together by love. It is the unloving among us that pollute our waters and the indecent who deliberately put poisons into the waters thinking they are doing us all a favor.
It is our obligation to strive for the purest water possible. Deciding what system is best for our needs is a very individual and personal process and there is no filtering system that is best for everyone. If we want pure water we have to put our devotion to it, our spirit, and some financial resources but we shall be surprised at how little a reasonably good system can cost. In a world with inequalities of wealth, we have to pause and consider what we can afford in time, energy and financial resources. Very few can afford the kind of systems that can handle every problem with water but for very little we can do some amazing things to the water we drink.
Note: Beware of the quick and uninformed opinion about water. There is tremendous disagreement here as everywhere. Everyone in the water business is going to try to sell you something. - Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Safely Avoid and Remove Dangerous Man-Made Fluoride, Part II
Safely Avoid and Remove Dangerous Man-Made Fluoride, Part II
Removing Fluoride from our Bodies:
The use of liver cleanses can be very effective in eliminating fluorides and other toxins. There are two basic types of liver cleanse protocols, both of which can be performed easily at home in one to two weeks. One protocol focuses primarily on the liver itself, while the second type of protocol also cleanses the gall bladder. The gall bladder is connected directly with liver function. Instructions for both kinds of liver cleansing, as well as liver cleanse products and kits, can be found online with simple searches.
Boron is a good fluoride remover and it has been proven effective in studies around the world. An easy and inexpensive source of boron can be found in common borax, which is available at most supermarkets. Borax has a history of anecdotal success for detoxing sodium fluoride.
Borax should be taken in very small quantities in pure water. As little as 1/32 to 1/4 of a teaspoon of borax in one liter of water consumed in small quantities throughout the day has been found to be safe and effective. About 1/8 of a teaspoon with a pinch of sea salt has been found to be particularly effective. Food grade sodium borate may be substituted for common borax.
Iodine has been clinically proven to increase the removal of fluoride from the body via the urine. Notably, most diets are deficient in this vital mineral. Seaweed foods and iodine supplements that combine iodine and potassium iodide are recommended most. Eliminating fluoride with iodine depletes calcium, thus it is recommended that one also take an effective calcium/magnesium supplement. Lecithin is recommended as an adjunct to using iodine.
The pulp, bark, and leaves from the tamarind tree can be used to make teas, extracts and tinctures that will help eliminate fluorides through the urine. Tamarind was originally indigenous to Africa but migrated into India and southeast Asia, and it has been used medicinally in Ayurvedic Medicine.
Fluoride stored in fatty tissues can be released and eliminated with the help of dry saunas. Since they can be strong enough to cause some side effects or an occasional healing crisis, it is advisable to keep water intake high and drink some chickweed tea to protect the kidneys. As is the case with iodine, it is also advisable to take a highly absorbable calcium/magnesium supplement and add lecithin.
Vitamin C in abundance is a great addition to any fluoride removal program. Natural sources of vitamin C are much better than ascorbic acid. Consume as much as you can tolerate along with a couple of tablespoons of lecithin daily.
Though it has not been proven conclusively, many believe that melatonin helps remove fluoride by increasing decalcification of the pineal gland. In addition to melatonin supplementation, plenty of daytime physical activity and/or exercise, a healthy diet, not overeating and meditation/relaxation exercises all contribute to higher melatonin production from the pineal gland.
Apple pectin is yet another effective item to use to eliminate fluoride. Other useful items include zeolite minerals, turmeric, cayenne, parsley, chlorella and cilantro.
Thus, even though dangerous man-made fluoride is exceedingly difficult to avoid entirely, by making the right choices and taking simple steps we can all greatly reduce our exposure to fluoride and eliminate much of what we do have in our bodies.
Sources included:
http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexico...
http://www.disease.com/news/10/0316...
http://www.ecomall.com/greenshoppin...
http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.a...
http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.a...
http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com...
Removing Fluoride from our Bodies:
The use of liver cleanses can be very effective in eliminating fluorides and other toxins. There are two basic types of liver cleanse protocols, both of which can be performed easily at home in one to two weeks. One protocol focuses primarily on the liver itself, while the second type of protocol also cleanses the gall bladder. The gall bladder is connected directly with liver function. Instructions for both kinds of liver cleansing, as well as liver cleanse products and kits, can be found online with simple searches.
Boron is a good fluoride remover and it has been proven effective in studies around the world. An easy and inexpensive source of boron can be found in common borax, which is available at most supermarkets. Borax has a history of anecdotal success for detoxing sodium fluoride.
Borax should be taken in very small quantities in pure water. As little as 1/32 to 1/4 of a teaspoon of borax in one liter of water consumed in small quantities throughout the day has been found to be safe and effective. About 1/8 of a teaspoon with a pinch of sea salt has been found to be particularly effective. Food grade sodium borate may be substituted for common borax.
Iodine has been clinically proven to increase the removal of fluoride from the body via the urine. Notably, most diets are deficient in this vital mineral. Seaweed foods and iodine supplements that combine iodine and potassium iodide are recommended most. Eliminating fluoride with iodine depletes calcium, thus it is recommended that one also take an effective calcium/magnesium supplement. Lecithin is recommended as an adjunct to using iodine.
The pulp, bark, and leaves from the tamarind tree can be used to make teas, extracts and tinctures that will help eliminate fluorides through the urine. Tamarind was originally indigenous to Africa but migrated into India and southeast Asia, and it has been used medicinally in Ayurvedic Medicine.
Fluoride stored in fatty tissues can be released and eliminated with the help of dry saunas. Since they can be strong enough to cause some side effects or an occasional healing crisis, it is advisable to keep water intake high and drink some chickweed tea to protect the kidneys. As is the case with iodine, it is also advisable to take a highly absorbable calcium/magnesium supplement and add lecithin.
Vitamin C in abundance is a great addition to any fluoride removal program. Natural sources of vitamin C are much better than ascorbic acid. Consume as much as you can tolerate along with a couple of tablespoons of lecithin daily.
Though it has not been proven conclusively, many believe that melatonin helps remove fluoride by increasing decalcification of the pineal gland. In addition to melatonin supplementation, plenty of daytime physical activity and/or exercise, a healthy diet, not overeating and meditation/relaxation exercises all contribute to higher melatonin production from the pineal gland.
Apple pectin is yet another effective item to use to eliminate fluoride. Other useful items include zeolite minerals, turmeric, cayenne, parsley, chlorella and cilantro.
Thus, even though dangerous man-made fluoride is exceedingly difficult to avoid entirely, by making the right choices and taking simple steps we can all greatly reduce our exposure to fluoride and eliminate much of what we do have in our bodies.
Sources included:
http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexico...
http://www.disease.com/news/10/0316...
http://www.ecomall.com/greenshoppin...
http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.a...
http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.a...
http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com...
Why the fluoridation of public water supplies is illegal
Why the fluoridation of public water supplies is illegal
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Printable Version FREE Email Newsletter
What's interesting here is that this biological effect of "preventing cavities" is a medical claim, according to the FDA. And as such, making this claim instantly and automatically transforms fluoride into a "drug" under currently FDA regulations.
This means that cities and towns all across America are now practicing medicine without a license by dripping liquid medication into the public water supply without the consent of those who are swallowing the medication.
If you or I did this, we would be arrested and tried as either terrorists (because contaminating the water supply is an act of terrorism) or felons practicing medicine without a license. So what allows cities and towns to get away with these very same crimes?
And that means those children or adults who already have high exposure to fluoride (from swallowing toothpaste or drinking fluoridated bottled water, for example) may now be exposed to too much fluoride from the added amounts in the tap water. Excess fluoride can cause serious health problems such as bone fractures and dark spots appearing on your teeth (dental fluorosis).
This does not appear to concern the proponents of fluoride -- people who believe they alone have the right to practice mass medicine without a license by dripping an unapproved drug chemical into the public water supply without the knowledge or consent of those who are being medicated by that chemical.
Every city and town in America currently engaged in fluoridation of the water supply is committing felony crimes. Town leaders who approve of water fluoridation are criminals operating in clear violation of FDA regulations, state medical laws and federal laws.
You may also wish to write a strong letter to your state medical board and complain that your city or town officials are "practicing medicine without a license" by dosing your city residents with an unapproved drug.
If they insist fluoride is not a drug, tell them to read the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). (http://www.fda.gov/regulatoryinform...)
There, you will find that the Act states:
The term "drug" means... articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals.
Now, I don't personally agree with this definition of a "drug" but this is what the FDA claims it to be, and it clearly states that any item intended to "affect the structure" of the body is a drug.
Fluoride is intended to affect the structure of the teeth. That's the whole claimed purpose of dumping it into the water supply. Therefore, fluoride is a drug.
Furthermore, since it is a drug, it is ILLEGAL to dump it into the water supply, even if it were approved by the FDA to treat cavities (which it isn't).
Thus, every employee of every city or town that is currently dumping this chemical drug into the water supply is guilty of a felony crime and should be immediately arrested and prosecuted for contamination of the public water supplies as well as practicing medicine without a license.
Call your local police department and report these crimes. It's time to arrest these fluoro-terrorists who are illegally contaminating our public water supply with illegal drugs. Stop the fluoride madness.
"I am appalled at the prospect of using water as a vehicle for drugs. Fluoride is a corrosive poison that will produce serious effects on a long range basis. Any attempt to use water this way is deplorable." - Dr. Charles Gordon Heyd, Past President of the American Medical Association.
Other resources to check out:
Fluoride Action Network
www.FluorideAlert.org
Citizens for Safe Drinking Water
www.NoFluoride.com
IAOMT (dentists opposing mercury)
www.iaomt.org
Why the fluoridation of public water supplies is illegal
Email this article to a friend Printable Version FREE Email Newsletter
What's interesting here is that this biological effect of "preventing cavities" is a medical claim, according to the FDA. And as such, making this claim instantly and automatically transforms fluoride into a "drug" under currently FDA regulations.
This means that cities and towns all across America are now practicing medicine without a license by dripping liquid medication into the public water supply without the consent of those who are swallowing the medication.
If you or I did this, we would be arrested and tried as either terrorists (because contaminating the water supply is an act of terrorism) or felons practicing medicine without a license. So what allows cities and towns to get away with these very same crimes?
Cities openly violate state and federal law
Keep in mind that a medication can only be legally prescribed to someone after they have been diagnosed with a medical need. In other words, a doctor can't legally prescribe you some pharmaceutical unless he examines you and determines you actually need it. But fluoride is medicating everyone whether they need it or not, without any medical diagnosis whatsoever.And that means those children or adults who already have high exposure to fluoride (from swallowing toothpaste or drinking fluoridated bottled water, for example) may now be exposed to too much fluoride from the added amounts in the tap water. Excess fluoride can cause serious health problems such as bone fractures and dark spots appearing on your teeth (dental fluorosis).
This does not appear to concern the proponents of fluoride -- people who believe they alone have the right to practice mass medicine without a license by dripping an unapproved drug chemical into the public water supply without the knowledge or consent of those who are being medicated by that chemical.
Every city and town in America currently engaged in fluoridation of the water supply is committing felony crimes. Town leaders who approve of water fluoridation are criminals operating in clear violation of FDA regulations, state medical laws and federal laws.
How to fight back
If you happen to see one of these town leaders at a town meeting, make a citizens' arrest and put them in handcuffs, then turn them over to the local sheriff.You may also wish to write a strong letter to your state medical board and complain that your city or town officials are "practicing medicine without a license" by dosing your city residents with an unapproved drug.
If they insist fluoride is not a drug, tell them to read the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). (http://www.fda.gov/regulatoryinform...)
There, you will find that the Act states:
The term "drug" means... articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals.
Now, I don't personally agree with this definition of a "drug" but this is what the FDA claims it to be, and it clearly states that any item intended to "affect the structure" of the body is a drug.
Fluoride is intended to affect the structure of the teeth. That's the whole claimed purpose of dumping it into the water supply. Therefore, fluoride is a drug.
Furthermore, since it is a drug, it is ILLEGAL to dump it into the water supply, even if it were approved by the FDA to treat cavities (which it isn't).
Thus, every employee of every city or town that is currently dumping this chemical drug into the water supply is guilty of a felony crime and should be immediately arrested and prosecuted for contamination of the public water supplies as well as practicing medicine without a license.
Call your local police department and report these crimes. It's time to arrest these fluoro-terrorists who are illegally contaminating our public water supply with illegal drugs. Stop the fluoride madness.
"I am appalled at the prospect of using water as a vehicle for drugs. Fluoride is a corrosive poison that will produce serious effects on a long range basis. Any attempt to use water this way is deplorable." - Dr. Charles Gordon Heyd, Past President of the American Medical Association.
Other resources to check out:
Fluoride Action Network
www.FluorideAlert.org
Citizens for Safe Drinking Water
www.NoFluoride.com
IAOMT (dentists opposing mercury)
www.iaomt.org
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2009 | Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2009 | Judicial Watch
Press Office 202-646-5172, ext 305
Washington, DC
Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2009
Contact Information:Press Office 202-646-5172, ext 305
Washington, DC
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes:
- Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 "Ten Most Corrupt" list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him. In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat. In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against Dodd for undervaluing a property he owns in Ireland on his Senate Financial Disclosure forms. Judicial Watch's complaint forced Dodd to amend the forms. However, press reports suggest the property to this day remains undervalued. Judicial Watch also alleges in the complaint that Dodd obtained a sweetheart deal for the property in exchange for his assistance in obtaining a presidential pardon (during the Clinton administration) and other favors for a long-time friend and business associate. The false financial disclosure forms were part of the cover-up. Dodd remains the head the Senate Banking Committee.
- Senator John Ensign (R-NV): A number of scandals popped up in 2009 involving public officials who conducted illicit affairs, and then attempted to cover them up with hush payments and favors, an obvious abuse of power. The year's worst offender might just be Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign. Ensign admitted in June to an extramarital affair with the wife of one of his staff members, who then allegedly obtained special favors from the Nevada Republican in exchange for his silence. According to The New York Times: "The Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee are expected to conduct preliminary inquiries into whether Senator John Ensign violated federal law or ethics rules as part of an effort to conceal an affair with the wife of an aide…" The former staffer, Douglas Hampton, began to lobby Mr. Ensign's office immediately upon leaving his congressional job, despite the fact that he was subject to a one-year lobbying ban. Ensign seems to have ignored the law and allowed Hampton lobbying access to his office as a payment for his silence about the affair. (These are potentially criminal offenses.) It looks as if Ensign misused his public office (and taxpayer resources) to cover up his sexual shenanigans.
- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): Judicial Watch is investigating a $12 million TARP cash injection provided to the Boston-based OneUnited Bank at the urging of Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank. As reported in the January 22, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Department indicated it would only provide funds to healthy banks to jump-start lending. Not only was OneUnited Bank in massive financial turmoil, but it was also "under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives' use." Rep. Frank admitted he spoke to a "federal regulator," and Treasury granted the funds. (The bank continues to flounder despite Frank's intervention for federal dollars.) Moreover, Judicial Watch uncovered documents in 2009 that showed that members of Congress for years were aware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were playing fast and loose with accounting issues, risk assessment issues and executive compensation issues, even as liberals led by Rep. Frank continued to block attempts to rein in the two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). For example, during a hearing on September 10, 2003, before the House Committee on Financial Services considering a Bush administration proposal to further regulate Fannie and Freddie, Rep. Frank stated: "I want to begin by saying that I am glad to consider the legislation, but I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two Government Sponsored Enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have recently had an accounting problem with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as appears to be appropriate. I do not think at this point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury." Frank received $42,350 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 1989 and 2008. Frank also engaged in a relationship with a Fannie Mae Executive while serving on the House Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner: In 2009, Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted that he failed to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes from 2001-2004 on his lucrative salary at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization with 185 member countries that oversees the global financial system. (Did we mention Geithner now runs the IRS?) It wasn't until President Obama tapped Geithner to head the Treasury Department that he paid back most of the money, although the IRS kindly waived the hefty penalties. In March 2009, Geithner also came under fire for his handling of the AIG bonus scandal, where the company used $165 million of its bailout funds to pay out executive bonuses, resulting in a massive public backlash. Of course as head of the New York Federal Reserve, Geithner helped craft the AIG deal in September 2008. However, when the AIG scandal broke, Geithner claimed he knew nothing of the bonuses until March 10, 2009. The timing is important. According to CNN: "Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he learned of AIG's impending $160 million bonus payments to members of its troubled financial-products unit on March 10, sources tell TIME that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on Feb. 28. That is ten days before Treasury staffers say they first learned 'full details' of the bonus plan, and three days before the [Obama] Administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG." Throw in another embarrassing disclosure in 2009 that Geithner employed "household help" ineligible to work in the United States, and it becomes clear why the Treasury Secretary has earned a spot on the "Ten Most Corrupt Politicians in Washington" list.
- Attorney General Eric Holder: Tim Geithner can be sure he won't be hounded about his tax-dodging by his colleague Eric Holder, US Attorney General. Judicial Watch strongly opposed Holder because of his terrible ethics record, which includes: obstructing an FBI investigation of the theft of nuclear secrets from Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory; rejecting multiple requests for an independent counsel to investigate alleged fundraising abuses by then-Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White House; undermining the criminal investigation of President Clinton by Kenneth Starr in the midst of the Lewinsky investigation; and planning the violent raid to seize then-six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint in order to return him to Castro's Cuba. Moreover, there is his soft record on terrorism. Holder bypassed Justice Department procedures to push through Bill Clinton's scandalous presidential pardons and commutations, including for 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican terrorist group that orchestrated approximately 120 bombings in the United States, killing at least six people and permanently maiming dozens of others, including law enforcement officers. His record in the current administration is no better. As he did during the Clinton administration, Holder continues to ignore serious incidents of corruption that could impact his political bosses at the White House. For example, Holder has refused to investigate charges that the Obama political machine traded VIP access to the White House in exchange for campaign contributions – a scheme eerily similar to one hatched by Holder's former boss, Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The Holder Justice Department also came under fire for dropping a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. On Election Day 2008, Black Panthers dressed in paramilitary garb threatened voters as they approached polling stations. Holder has also failed to initiate a comprehensive Justice investigation of the notorious organization ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which is closely tied to President Obama. There were allegedly more than 400,000 fraudulent ACORN voter registrations in the 2008 campaign. And then there were the journalist videos catching ACORN Housing workers advising undercover reporters on how to evade tax, immigration, and child prostitution laws. Holder's controversial decisions on new rights for terrorists and his attacks on previous efforts to combat terrorism remind many of the fact that his former law firm has provided and continues to provide pro bono representation to terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Holder's politicization of the Justice Department makes one long for the days of Alberto Gonzales.
- Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL): One of the most serious scandals of 2009 involved a scheme by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to sell President Obama's then-vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Two men caught smack dab in the middle of the scandal: Senator Roland Burris, who ultimately got the job, and Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, emissaries for Jesse Jackson Jr., named "Senate Candidate A" in the Blagojevich indictment, reportedly offered $1.5 million to Blagojevich during a fundraiser if he named Jackson Jr. to Obama's seat. Three days later federal authorities arrested Blagojevich. Burris, for his part, apparently lied about his contacts with Blagojevich, who was arrested in December 2008 for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. According to Reuters: "Roland Burris came under fresh scrutiny…after disclosing he tried to raise money for the disgraced former Illinois governor who named him to the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama…In the latest of those admissions, Burris said he looked into mounting a fundraiser for Rod Blagojevich -- later charged with trying to sell Obama's Senate seat -- at the same time he was expressing interest to the then-governor's aides about his desire to be appointed." Burris changed his story five times regarding his contacts with Blagojevich prior to the Illinois governor appointing him to the U.S. Senate. Three of those changing explanations came under oath.
- President Barack Obama: During his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political corruption to the White House. Consider just a few Obama administration "lowlights" from year one: Even before President Obama was sworn into office, he was interviewed by the FBI for a criminal investigation of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's scheme to sell the President's former Senate seat to the highest bidder. (Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and slumlord Valerie Jarrett, both from Chicago, are also tangled up in the Blagojevich scandal.) Moreover, the Obama administration made the startling claim that the Privacy Act does not apply to the White House. The Obama White House believes it can violate the privacy rights of American citizens without any legal consequences or accountability. President Obama boldly proclaimed that "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," but his administration is addicted to secrecy, stonewalling far too many of Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act requests and is refusing to make public White House visitor logs as federal law requires. The Obama administration turned the National Endowment of the Arts (as well as the agency that runs the AmeriCorps program) into propaganda machines, using tax dollars to persuade "artists" to promote the Obama agenda. According to documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the idea emerged as a direct result of the Obama campaign and enjoyed White House approval and participation. President Obama has installed a record number of "czars" in positions of power. Too many of these individuals are leftist radicals who answer to no one but the president. And too many of the czars are not subject to Senate confirmation (which raises serious constitutional questions). Under the President's bailout schemes, the federal government continues to appropriate or control — through fiat and threats — large sectors of the private economy, prompting conservative columnist George Will to write: "The administration's central activity — the political allocation of wealth and opportunity — is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption." Government-run healthcare and car companies, White House coercion, uninvestigated ACORN corruption, debasing his office to help Chicago cronies, attacks on conservative media and the private sector, unprecedented and dangerous new rights for terrorists, perks for campaign donors — this is Obama's "ethics" record — and we haven't even gotten through the first year of his presidency.
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): At the heart of the corruption problem in Washington is a sense of entitlement. Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2009 that suggest Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personal airline. These documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, include internal Pentagon email correspondence detailing attempts by Pentagon staff to accommodate Pelosi's numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker's 11th hour cancellations and changes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also came under fire in April 2009, when she claimed she was never briefed about the CIA's use of the waterboarding technique during terrorism investigations. The CIA produced a report documenting a briefing with Pelosi on September 4, 2002, that suggests otherwise. Judicial Watch also obtained documents, including a CIA Inspector General report, which further confirmed that Congress was fully briefed on the enhanced interrogation techniques. Aside from her own personal transgressions, Nancy Pelosi has ignored serious incidents of corruption within her own party, including many of the individuals on this list. (See Rangel, Murtha, Jesse Jackson, Jr., etc.)
- Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven: Rep. John Murtha made headlines in 2009 for all the wrong reasons. The Pennsylvania congressman is under federal investigation for his corrupt relationship with the now-defunct defense lobbyist PMA Group. PMA, founded by a former Murtha associate, has been the congressman's largest campaign contributor. Since 2002, Murtha has raised $1.7 million from PMA and its clients. And what did PMA and its clients receive from Murtha in return for their generosity? Earmarks -- tens of millions of dollars in earmarks. In fact, even with all of the attention surrounding his alleged influence peddling, Murtha kept at it. Following an FBI raid of PMA's offices earlier in 2009, Murtha continued to seek congressional earmarks for PMA clients, while also hitting them up for campaign contributions. According to The Hill, in April, "Murtha reported receiving contributions from three former PMA clients for whom he requested earmarks in the pending appropriations bills." When it comes to the PMA scandal, Murtha is not alone. As many as six other Members of Congress are currently under scrutiny according to The Washington Post. They include: Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-VA), Norm Dicks (D-WA.), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), C.W. Bill Young (R-FL.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-KS.). Of course rather than investigate this serious scandal, according to Roll Call House Democrats circled the wagons, "cobbling together a defense to offer political cover to their rank and file." The Washington Post also reported in 2009 that Murtha's nephew received $4 million in Defense Department no-bid contracts: "Newly obtained documents…show Robert Murtha mentioning his influential family connection as leverage in his business dealings and holding unusual power with the military."
- Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): Rangel, the man in charge of writing tax policy for the entire country, has yet to adequately explain how he could possibly "forget" to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income he earned from his off-shore rental property. He also faces allegations that he improperly used his influence to maintain ownership of highly coveted rent-controlled apartments in Harlem, and misused his congressional office to fundraise for his private Rangel Center by preserving a tax loophole for an oil drilling company in exchange for funding. On top of all that, Rangel recently amended his financial disclosure reports, which doubled his reported wealth. (He somehow "forgot" about $1 million in assets.) And what did he do when the House Ethics Committee started looking into all of this? He apparently resorted to making "campaign contributions" to dig his way out of trouble. According to WCBS TV, a New York CBS affiliate: "The reigning member of Congress' top tax committee is apparently 'wrangling' other politicos to get him out of his own financial and tax troubles...Since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him." Charlie Rangel should not be allowed to remain in Congress, let alone serve as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and he knows it. That's why he felt the need to disburse campaign contributions to Ethics Committee members and other congressional
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