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Seroquel's Toll

Martha Rosenberg
counterpunch
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:54 UTC
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Even though AstraZeneca's antipsychotic Seroquel is the fifth best-selling medication in the US according to drugs.com, exceeded only by Lipitor, Nexium, Plavix and Advair diskus, its safety, effectiveness, clinical trial and promotion records are highly checkered.

An original backer, psychiatrist Richard Borison, was sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence in 1998 for a pay-to-play Seroquel research scheme.

Its US medical director Wayne MacFadden had sexual affairs with two different women involved with Seroquel research, say published reports.

Chicago psychiatrist Michael Reinstein received $500,000 from AstraZenenca and wrote 41,000 prescriptions for Seroquel reports the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica.

Psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff who left Emory University in disgrace after a Congressional investigation for unreported pharma income, promoted Seroquel in continuing medical education courses according to the web site of psychiatrist Daniel Carlat.

Florida child psychiatrist Jorge Armenteros was chairman of the FDA committee responsible for recommending Seroquel approvals while a paid AstraZeneca speaker himself, said the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2009.

Psychiatrist Charles Schulz' high profile pro-Seroquel presentations are suspected of being colored by his AstraZeneca income says the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

And unexplained Iraq and Afghanistan troop deaths are linked to Seroquel reported the Associated Press in August.
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Attention

Dangerous Spin Doctors

Dr. Mark Hyman
Dr.Hyman.com
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 07:05 UTC
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A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found over 40 percent of the best designed, peer-reviewed scientific papers published in the world's top medical journals misrepresented the actual findings of the research.(i) The "spin doctors" writing the papers found a way to show treatments worked, when, in fact, they didn't.

Doctors and health care consumers rely on published scientific studies to guide their decisions about which treatments work and which don't. We expect academic medical researchers to determine what needs to be studied, and to objectively report their data. We rely on government regulators to prevent harmful medications from being approved, or to quickly remove harmful medications or treatments from the market.

What most physicians and consumers don't recognize is that science is now for sale, published data often misrepresents the truth, academic medical research has become corrupted by pharmaceutical money and special interests, and government regulators more often protect industry than the public. Increasingly, academic medical researchers are for hire, and research, once a pure activity of inquiry, is now a tool for promoting products.

Science has always been considered an objective endeavor that removes bias and is inherently true and reliable. While we may acknowledge that some science is inferior in design or execution, and that there are a few corrupt scientists, we mostly believe what is published in the world's top medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and New England Journal of Medicine can be counted on to guide our medical decisions. We still have trust in the scientific method. That trust may be misguided.
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Eye 2

UK Seeks Global Accord On Cyber Threat

Alex Barker and James Blitz
Financial Times
Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:34 UTC
Britain is to call for countries to agree rules for "acceptable behaviour" in cyberspace amid concern about what is seen as a growing security threat.

William Hague, UK foreign secretary, will offer to host a conference in London this year "to lay the basis for a set of standards on how countries should act in cyberspace".

To underline the seriousness of the threat to governments and businesses, Mr Hague gives three examples of attacks on British interests, including those directed at his staff and a defence contractor.

Although he does not name the states behind the attacks, leaked US diplomatic cables have detailed allegations of cyberattacks and intrusion by China and Russia.

Work is already under way by international bodies to develop conventions on discrete cyber issues, but no foreign minister has called for a comprehensive set of principles that can govern the internet worldwide.
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Robot

Army holds the fate of Mubarak in its hands - and he knows it

Fawaz Gerges
Independant
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:12 UTC
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© Unknown
Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
If President Mubarak's support was representative of the population, you would have expected tens of thousands to come out in full force over the last week. But the ruling party hasn't been able to mobilize people. It isn't a lack of resources: it's simply that there are very few who would go out on a limb to defend them.

The regime's base is extremely shallow in comparison to the opposition, which represents an overwhelming majority of the population. The regime has alienated most of the rising social and political classes: centrists and democrats, leftists, nationalists, independent Islamists, and the Muslim Brotherhood. They're left with about 10 per cent of the country, the uppermost echelon of the population.

It's a strategic alliance between the business class and the ruling elite, with the support of the state security apparatus, which numbers about a million people. Mubarak's allies hold the top cabinet positions, and his new Vice-President is a very close supporter. But outside that structure there is really no support at all.

There is one other ingredient in his support base that is less secure, and will probably prove the deciding factor: the military. There is no doubt that there are those in the top brass who believe in his politics, who believe in the status quo and stability. And as an institution, the army is calling the shots.
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Vader

US negotiates Mubarak exit strategy

Philip Sherwell
Telegraph.co.uk
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:27 UTC
The US is negotiating with Egyptian officials for Hosni Mubarak, the president, to resign now and hand power to an interim government, according to reports.

The proposal from the Obama administration would see the new government led by Mr Mubarak's newly-appointed deputy Omar Suleiman and would be backed by the Egyptian military, the New York Times has claimed.

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Eye 1

US: Homeland Security Secretary Inspects Super Bowl Site, Says Fans Have 'Shared Responsibility' for Security at Game and Across the Country

Penny Starr
CNS News
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00 UTC
Janet Napolitano
© Associated Press / Eric Gay
Janet Napolitano, left, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Bob Casey, right, FBI Special Agent in Charge, leave an NFL Super Bowl Security news conference, Monday, Jan. 31, 2011 in Dallas.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano traveled to Dallas earlier this week to personally inspect the massive security operation surrounding the 45th Super Bowl game and to announce the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign.

"We are partnering this year with the NFL on our 'If You See Something, Say Something' campaign and launching that NFL partnership right here at the Super Bowl," Napolitano said during a press conference on Monday at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas where Sunday's game will be played.

"The idea is simple," Napolitano said. "We are simply asking the American people to be vigilant, recognizing that our security is a shared responsibility that all of us must participate in."

"If a fan at the Super Bowl or any other American at any other place sees something that is potentially dangerous, then say something about it to local law enforcement or someone in authority," Napolitano said.

Napolitano announced that DHS has trained some 1,200 stadium staffers as "first observers" and that cargo going into the venue also will be screened using "non-intrusive inspection equipment."

Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, told CNN that millions of dollars were spent to make the stadium secure, including perches for snipers and surveillance cameras to cover every corner of the venue.
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Megaphone

Monsanto Nation: Exposing Monsanto's Minions

Ronnie Cummins
Common Dreams
Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:38 UTC
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© senatorwagner.com
My expose last week, The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now? has ignited a long-overdue debate on how to stop Monsanto's earth killing, market-monopolizing, climate-destabilizing rampage. Should we basically resign ourselves to the fact that the Biotech Bully of St. Louis controls the dynamics of the marketplace and public policy? Should we seek some kind of practical compromise or "coexistence" between organics and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)? Should we focus our efforts on crop pollution compensation and "controlled deregulation" of genetically engineered (GE) crops, rather than campaign for an outright ban, or mandatory labeling and safety-testing? Should we prepare ourselves for a future farm landscape where the U.S.'s 23 million acres of alfalfa, the nation's fourth largest crop, (93% of which are currently not sprayed with toxic herbicides), including organic alfalfa, are sprayed with Roundup and/or genetically polluted with Monsanto's mutant genes?

Or should we stand up and say Hell No to Monsanto and the Obama Administration? Should we stop all the talk about coexistence between organics and GMOs; unite Millions Against Monsanto, mobilize like never before at the grassroots; put enormous pressure on the nation's grocers to truthfully label the thousands of so-called conventional or "natural" foods containing or produced with GMOs; and then slowly but surely drive GMOs from the market?
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Bad Guys

Monsanto Executive Appointed to High Level Position in the FDA

Marianne Skolek
Salem-News.com
Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:23 UTC
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© Salem-News.org
Monsanto is synonymous with reckless deadly business practices in America, and now their man has secured a position in the FDA, again.
Monsanto gave us Agent Orange, Aspartame and Cancer Causing Additives in our Food Supply

A 2010 article published by Veterans Today titled, Former Former Monsanto Exec. Appointed to the Head of the F.D.A.!, announced that Michael R. Taylor, was appointed Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA.

Taylor is a former top executive (VP Public Policy), attorney and lobbyist with Monsanto and has had prior positions with law firms, the USDA and the FDA
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Vader

Israeli, U.S. Generals Taking Control in Egypt


Tehran Times
Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:23 UTC
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Tehran - Two senior Israeli officers and three U.S. generals have arrived in Cairo to take control of the military command in Egypt, an anonymous source has told the Tehran Times.

The command council is headed by a general named Sisson, the source said. One of the options that the generals are weighing is staging a military coup in Egypt.

The decision shows that the United States and Israel are seriously worried about the fate of Hosni Mubarak's regime as unprecedented protests have gripped Egypt.
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Cult

The Egyptian Tinderbox: How Banks and Investors Are Starving the Third World

Ellen Hodgson Brown J.D.
TruthOut
Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:07 UTC
Egyptian child
© James Buck
A portrait of an Egyptian girl taken in 2007.

"What for a poor man is a crust, for a rich man is a securitized asset class." -Futures trader Ann Berg, quoted in The Guardian UK.

Underlying the sudden, volatile uprising in Egypt and Tunisia is a growing global crisis sparked by soaring food prices and unemployment. The Associated Press reports that roughly 40 percent of Egyptians struggle along at the World Bank-set poverty level of under $2 per day. Analysts estimate that food price inflation in Egypt is currently at an unsustainable 17 percent yearly. In poorer countries, as much as 60 to 80 percent of people's incomes go for food, compared to just 10 to 20 percent in industrial countries. An increase of a dollar or so in the cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread for Americans can mean starvation for people in Egypt and other poor countries.

Follow the Money

The cause of the recent jump in global food prices remains a matter of debate. Some analysts blame the Federal Reserve's "quantitative easing" program (increasing the money supply with credit created with accounting entries), which they warn is sparking hyperinflation. Too much money chasing too few goods is the classic explanation for rising prices.

The problem with that theory is that the global money supply has actually shrunk since 2006, when food prices began their dramatic rise. Virtually all money today is created on the books of banks as "credit" or "debt," and overall lending has shrunk. This has occurred in an accelerating process of deleveraging (paying down or writing off loans and not making new ones), as the subprime housing market has collapsed and bank capital requirements have been raised. Although it seems counterintuitive, the more debt there is, the more money there is in the system. As debt shrinks, the money supply shrinks in tandem.
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