Smithfield Swine Flu

Yes, organic food can be more expensive than mass produced chemicalized food found so in major grocery store chains across America. But what comes with that lower price? Lower quality food, risks to your health and exporting your dollars from your community to corporate bank accounts. Is cheaper food really cheaper? I guess if you do not consider the environmental aspect, your personal health or raping the local economy to be factors in your life than I guess it is cheaper. Support local organic family farmers...

The swine flu, now being renamed Mexican Flu because we don't want to offend Jews and Muslims alike. Why aren't we calling it Smithfield Pork flu? It has been traced to a plant in Vera Cruz run by pork giant and global mass polluter Smithfield Foods. You may remember Smithfield Foods from that great article in Rolling Stone Magazine called "Boss Hog". Here is a taste:

"Boss Hog America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history. Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat." by Jeff Tietz

Here's the whole article... you probably won't eat pork tonight or maybe even tomorrow after reading it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_secret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters

Leave it to Amy Goodman and independant bloggers to report what the corporate run media does not want to say:

"Is Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak? Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carroll, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site.

On Friday, the U.S. disease-tracking blog Biosurveillance published a timeline of the outbreak containing this nugget, dated April 6 (major tip of the hat to Paula Hay, who alerted me to the Smithfield link on the Comfood listserv and has written about it on her blog, Peak Oil Entrepreneur):

Residents [of Perote] believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to "flu." However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak."

to read the full story: http://www.truthout.org/042809K

OBAMETER

I heard someone on KZYX and Z say that someone needs to start a website to track the lies Obama has stated in his campaign... so instead I am starting a post.

From the onset let me state that Obama is far better than Bush(it)... at least when I am getting screwed by the government it isn't as bad as it was... or maybe just the packaging changed a bit.

I went and saw Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! - probably the only true independent journalistic voice keeping it real. She helped me put a different perspective on my growing mis-feelings about Obama. It truly was historic moment in history when two candidates running for President were a bi racial man and a woman. We have the 60's to thank for that moment. It was historic moment and one that caused more than one of us to shed a tear when Obama was elected... I know I did. It was another proud moment in the psyche of the nation when Obama walked into the White House... the world's most famous house that was built by slaves. A circle has been completed... and for that I am thankful. I am not living in fantasy that racism is gone... just one bridge has been crossed and there are many more on the road ahead. Amy brought up the story of Frederick Douglas, probably the greatest abolitionist that ever existed. How he was a troublesome slave that was sent to Mount Misery, the most evil place where torture and killing of troublesome slaves happened... incidentally now Donald Rumsfeld's house... yeah, no kidding! http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/84D88ECE-CC26-4455-B422-ADB418751941/ I suppose that closes the circle on another more sinister loop in life.

So at some moments I am proud and happy at how far we have come. I am also so sad because Obama really had a rare moment in history when he could have made the biggest shift in the world... he could of stood up and did what was right for the average Joe and Jane... instead he is taking the road that others have built and Bush certainly walked.

Our prison in Cuba is actually ramping up torture and beatings of the untried Muslims held hostage there. Obama has NOT allowed the basic rights to those held captive that we cherish so dearly... the foundations of our society... the right to a speedy and fair trial. Allegations have just started coming out about the worsening of conditions there. Please do not let the economic blanket of despair make you forget all the injustices going on in the world... I still am camping on a hillside in Mendocino County and woke up to freezing temperatures... though I did recently find part time work.

The WAR is still raging and being furthered by Obama... Since when did violence ever bring peace? Violence only begets violence. Look at the struggle of Palestinians... The constant Israeli attacks on innocent people has accomplished nothing but the furthering of resolve to fight the injustice. Obama has increased shipments of military weaponry to the Israeli government... many were used in the recent crackdowns on innocent people in the Palestinian State. OUR weapons are killing mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, grandmothers, aunts. Can you sleep at night? Over ONE MILLION Iraqis have paid for OUR actions. ONE MILLION! That is an insane number! As Franti has said: YOU can bomb the world but you cannot bomb it to PEACE! Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity. A failed action. So many of us believe in the words of Michael and the rest of the members of Spearhead. Why we are not outraged at this? Why aren’t our voices of dissent being shouted and heard? Many of us on this site and who attend his shows and enjoy his music have been inspired and deeply touched by the message... We all need to YELL for PEACE!
So Obama has strayed far from his promises... we are cutting the amount of teachers on the payrolls but we are expanding the war efforts in two countries. In Iraq Obama is simply renaming the troops and claiming to cut combat troops. He also is hiring mercenaries from a company he has a vested interest in... 120,000 mercenaries. Troop reduction my ASS. Afghanistan is a losing cause. What do we really gain by fighting people who dress a little different, talk a little different... I don't need a passport to walk on this Earth. I am of this EARTH. Why are we killing people who think a little different? By us NOT taking action we are the passive side of the war effort. By us not fighting injustice we become accomplices in the actions of our representatives...

Citibank has increased the salaries and bonuses of its top people in the last few months. INCREASED! Where is the opposition to that? All the failed banks who got TARP money have hired scores of lobbyists... lobbyist who worked for the government (both parties) and are making their will the way. All the failed banks and companies like AIG are increasing pay. That came out this morning in Amy's show. Why isn't that National NEWS? Why aren’t journalists actually fighting for the rights of the masses?

Today it came out that big oil is happy that global warming is happening because now it is easier to get at oil in the Arctic Circle. Happy at the destruction of our fair MOTHER, EARTH. HAPPY? Shell wants to further develop sea leases they acquired and are ready to start drilling for oil in one of the most fragile ecologic sites left on the planet. A BIG OIL spokesmen said you know only 1% of oil drilled is spilled. ONE PERCENT! That is too much. CAN anyone say EXXON VALDEZ? That only wiped out the fishing industry in parts of Alaska and caused ungodly amounts of economic hardship to the people of Alaska. Oh, didn't EXXON settle and give millions of dollars? HELL NO! The fishermen and women have not seen a penny of that money. The herring fisheries that existed in Cordova are now just ghosts... I know I lived 60 nautical miles away from the spill. ONE PERCENT IS TWO PERCENT TOO MUCH. YELLFIRE!

We won't delve into insurance and the documented radical change of position that Obama took there. Single Payer... We are the only civilized country that does not give health care as a right to the masses... In polls, the masses say they want it. BIG AUTO actually is now on the side of it. We are the only civilized country in the world that if you lose your job you lose your healthcare. I guess corporate profits are worth more than you and me. Obama says "I never said we should go and try to get single payer" - and a speech Obama gave to the AFL-CIO in 2003 - in which he says, "I happen to be a proponent of single-payer health care coverage." POLITRICKS AS USUAL!

Obama has put together an economic team of the worst abusers of Wall Street to combat the damage they instituted. Larry Summers who got paid five million dollars last year for working one day a week representing DE Shaw, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. The same Larry Summers, the one who was outraged two weeks ago about some AIG executives who earned $1 million in bonuses, himself earned $8 million in bonuses from the same hedge funds and financial institutions that Larry was appointed to oversee and regulate.

YELLFIRE! Here is an excerpt from "SOLD OUT":

Here are the “highlights” of our Economic downfall:

• Beginning in 1983 with the Reagan Administration, the U.S. government acquiesced in accounting rules adopted by the financial industry that allowed banks and other corporations to take money-losing assets off their balance sheets in order to hide them from investors and the public.

• Between 1998 and 2000, Congress and the Clinton Administration repeatedly blocked efforts to regulate “financial derivatives” — including the mortgage-related credit default swaps that became the basis of trillions of dollars in speculation.

• In 1999, Congress repealed the Depression- era law that barred banks from offering investment and insurance services, and vice versa, enabling these firms to engage in speculation by investing money from checking and savings accounts into financial “derivatives” and other schemes understood by only a handful of individuals.

• Taking advantage of historically low interest rates in the early part of this decade, shady mortgage brokers and bankers began offering mortgages on egregious terms to purchasers who were not qualified. When these predatory lending practices were brought to the attention of federal agencies, they refused to take serious action. Worse, when states stepped into the vacuum by passing laws requiring protections against dirty loans, the Bush Administration went to court to invalidate those reforms, on the ground that the inaction of federal agencies superseded state laws.

• The financial industry’s friends in Congress made sure that those who speculate in mortgages would not be legally liable for fraud or other illegalities that occurred when the mortgage was made.
• Egged on by Wall Street, two government- sponsored corporations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, started buying large numbers of subprime loans from private banks as well as packages of mortgages known as “mortgage-backed securities.”

• In 2004, the top cop on the Wall Street beat in Washington — the Securities and Exchange Commission — now operating under the radical deregulatory ideology of the Bush Administration, authorized investment banks to decide for themselves how much money they were required to set aside as rainy day reserves. Some firms then entered into $40 worth of speculative trading for every $1 they held.

• With the compensation of CEOs increasingly tied to the value of the firm’s total assets, a tidal wave of mergers and acquisitions in the financial world — 11,500 between 1980 and 2005 — led to the predominance of just a relative handful banks in the U.S. financial system. Successive administrations failed to enforce antitrust laws to block these mergers. The result: less competition, higher fees and charges for consumers, and a financial system vulnerable to collapse if any single one of the banks ran into trouble.

• Investors and even government authorities relied on private “credit rating” firms to review corporate balance sheets and proposed investments and report to potential investors about their quality and safety. But the credit rating companies had a grave conflict of interest: they are paid by the financial firms to issue the ratings. Not surprisingly, they gave the highest ratings to the investments issued by the firms that paid them, even as it became clear that the ratings were inflated and the companies were in precarious condition The financial lobby made sure that regulation of the credit ratings firms would not solve these problems.
It is time that our voices be heard! Demand PEACE! Demand that WALL STREET stays out of our pockets… Demand that everyone is afforded the same rights that we cherish.

ASWAH