Flu Vaccine High Dose Fluzone High-Dose 1.5-4.0 Times Superior to Normal Dose?

Tags: Flu Vaccine High Dose for Seniors, 1.5-4.0 Higher Hemagglutination Inhibition Normal Dose, Unknown whether more effective, but normally correlates

Medscape Excerpt: ... Fluzone High-Dose elicited significantly higher hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers against all three influenza virus strains that were included in seasonal influenza vaccines recommended during the study period.[8–10]

In one study, prespecified criteria for superiority, defined as when the lower 95% confidence limit of 1) a ratio of geometric mean HI titers is >1.5 for at least two strains and 2) the difference in fourfold rise of HI titers is >10% for at least two strains, were demonstrated for persons aged ≥65 years who received Fluzone High-Dose compared with Fluzone for influenza A(H1N1) and influenza A(H3N2) antigens.

Prespecified criteria for noninferiority to Fluzone were demonstrated for the influenza B antigen.[6,9] Whether the higher postvaccination immune responses observed among Fluzone High-Dose vaccine recipients will result in greater protection against influenza illness is unknown. …

Fluzone High-Dose elicited significantly higher hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers against all three influenza virus strains that were included in seasonal influenza vaccines recommended during the study period.[8–10] In one study, prespecified criteria for superiority, defined as when the lower 95% confidence limit of 1) a ratio of geometric mean HI titers is >1.5 for at least two strains and 2) the difference in fourfold rise of HI titers is >10% for at least two strains, were demonstrated for persons aged ≥65 years who received Fluzone High-Dose compared with Fluzone for influenza A(H1N1) and influenza A(H3N2) antigens. Prespecified criteria for noninferiority to Fluzone were demonstrated for the influenza B antigen.[6,9] Whether the higher postvaccination immune responses observed among Fluzone High-Dose vaccine recipients will result in greater protection against influenza illness is unknown. …

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/721317_2

Does the Vaccine Matter?

BY SHANNON BROWNLEE AND JEANNE LENZER

Whether this season’s swine flu turns out to be deadly or mild, most experts agree that it’s only a matter of time before we’re hit by a truly devastating flu pandemic—one that might kill more people worldwide than have died of the plague and AIDS combined. In the U.S., the main lines of defense are pharmaceutical—vaccines and antiviral drugs to limit the spread of flu and prevent people from dying from it. Yet now some flu experts are challenging the medical orthodoxy and arguing that for those most in need of protection, flu shots and antiviral drugs may provide little to none. So where does that leave us if a bad pandemic strikes? ... http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/11/does-the-vaccine-matter/7723/

Shannon Brownlee has been a superb medical journalists for over 30 years and lots what she says about seniors with weakened immune from age and other diseases has to be taken seriously. Seniors should read her book Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer. It is well documented based partly on millions of overtreated people on Medicare.

If you are over 65 and had flu vaccinations in the past, the increased arm swelling for the four times higher dose Fluzone High Dose will probably be acceptable. If you never had a flu vaccine before, my experience has been a mild increase in temperature and more soreness. I felt no effects in subsequent vaccinations.

Some of the studies indicated temperatures as high as 102 degrees F for the high dose vaccine, but no data was available whether the seniors had previous vaccinations. I forgot the small number who were so affected.

Ask your primary care doctor which dose they would recommend. Since my immune system is already depressed from my medications, I will go for the high dose which may allow me to tolerate crowds during the flu season.

We already know that even with the flu vaccines at normal doses, many seniors get sick and die. The evidence for the dangers of vaccines is either fraudulent such as the Autism scare where the researchers admitted to the fraud and no other research to duplicate their results.

Intelligent or not, we are all susceptible to our emotional brain which often trumps our prefrontal cortex, our reason part of our brain. Injury or disease or underdevelopment to this part of the brain makes people more religious, more likely to commit crimes such as adultery, theft, lying even when it hurts other people.

Neanderthals have no prefrontal cortex just like apes so they did not reason but lived by their emotions. That is why it is not unusual for religious leaders to commit crimes as we have seen in recent times. Politicians are another example such as many Tea Party Republicans. The Republican leaders and corporations exploit these flaws to elect the “right” people to congress and the senate and even the President. Lying, cheating, stealing such as FOX News Corp hacking to get the right kind of news is a lot more common than we think.

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD have an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. Even at age four, children who are better able to resist chocolate candy rewards for a longer time develop into excellent students in school and achieve success in college and in the work world. How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer, 2009.

Jim Kawakami, Sept 13, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Politics Obama Needs to Tell Voters What Republicans Will Do If They’re in Power

Tags: Obama Campaign Speeches Finally Hit Mark Repubs Help Themselves and Corporations, Obama All Americans Except Abuses by Repubs and Corporations

President Obama needs to also start working on our Press/Media and indirectly Americans because the former is the purveyor of news. They can choose to report or not and accurately or not. Call those who are more fair towards his administration and use poetic license to expand on their question to emphasize how many stop the bill motions on a bill that Republicans have used to stop needed bills for the benefit of both Americans and small business.

Below Obama pointed out a specific House Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) for refusing to say that the bills that Obama were barely able to pass to help Americans was resisted at every turn as shown below. Both Rachel Maddow and Frank Rich of the New York Times picked up on this, but sadly, few others.

The excerpts below explains their main points.

Jim Kawakami, Sept 12, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

MaddowBlog http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/09/5075113-obama-calls-out-boehner-repeat If you're the Democrats, you can make all the policy points you want, but in a campaign year like this one, what you really want is to have all the bad things you want to say about the other party personified in one very easily caricatured opponent.

And in 2010, that easily caricatured opponent has actually identified himself. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) set himself up as the new Republican standard-bearer by calling for President Obama to can his economic team and by then advancing his own economic platform for the nation.

President Obama set about making Rep. Boehner as famous as possible in his stimulus speech yesterday in his home turf of Cleveland. Mr. Obama called out the congressman eight times by name. "Mr. Boehner dismissed these jobs we saved –- teaching our kids, patrolling our streets, rushing into burning buildings -– as 'government jobs' -– jobs I guess he thought just weren't worth saving," the president told the crowd.

There's political gain to be had in personifying your opposition, Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell said. There's also political risk. "You've suggested that your president can be beaten by a potential speaker of the House," she told us on the show last night.

[Full segment]

Obama Tells Voters What Republicans Rejects NY Times Frank Rich Tells Obama to Bite Back Sept 11, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12rich.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all

NO, he can’t. President Obama can’t reverse the unemployment numbers by Election Day. He can’t get even a modest new stimulus bill past the Party of No, and even if he could, there would be few jobs to show for it until (maybe) 2011. Nor can he rewrite the history of his administration. Its signal accomplishments to date are an initial stimulus package that was overrun by the calamity at hand and a marathon health care battle as yet better known for its unseemly orgy of backroom wrangling than its concrete results. While that brawl raged, the White House seemed indifferent to the mounting number of Americans being tossed onto the Great Recession scrapheap. …

For Obama to make Americans believe he does understand their problems and close the enthusiasm gap, he cannot merely make changes of campaign style. Sporadic photo ops in shirtsleeves or factory settings persuade no one; a few terrific speeches can’t always ride to the rescue. Nor would there be much point in firing Summers and Geithner — a political nonstarter anyway, now that it’s been opportunistically proposed by the G.O.P. leader John Boehner (his one good idea).

Certainly Obama can add powerful new hands who might actually fight to protect ordinary Americans from the sharks; the star consumer advocate, Elizabeth Warren, should have been front and center, even in a Senate confirmation battle, long ago. But in the short term between now and Election Day, Obama may have the most to gain by sharpening his attack on those “powerful interests” who liken him to a dog. A top dog bites back (with a smile).

In a second forceful speech last week, delivered outside Cleveland, Obama titillated the political press by calling out Boehner by name eight times. But though Boehner is a nice soft target — he belittled the economic meltdown as an “ant” and has staked his political capital on extending tax cuts for America’s wealthiest 3 percent — he’s merely a front-man. Obama must also call out the powerful interests who are pulling the G.O.P.’s strings (and filling its coffers), whether on Wall Street or in Big Oil or any other sector where special interests are aligned against reform in the public interest.

If Obama can speak lucidly about a subject as thorny as race, he can surely do a far more specific job of telling the story of how we got to this economic impasse. He must join the many who are talking about why the top 1 percent of American earners now take home nearly a quarter of Americans’ total income — perhaps the single most revealing indicator of how three decades of greed and free-market absolutism have eviscerated America’s fundamental ideals of fairness. It can’t all be reduced to the shorthand of “George W. Bush.”

Obama might be so rude as to point out how these top earners are whining all the way to the bank even as the G.O.P. opposes extending more benefits to the unemployed and new tax cuts to small business. In June, the Business Roundtable chairman and Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg gave a speech so rank with self-victimization — he claimed that government was “reaching into virtually every sector of economic life” — that the normally polite Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein reviled him as “a corporate hack” peddling “much-discredited country-club nonsense.”

Seidenberg was soon topped by a multibillionaire Republican contributor, Stephen Schwarzman, who likened Obama’s modest financial regulatory package to “when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.” Among the clients of Schwarzman’s private equity company, Blackstone, is Goodyear, which signed on in 2004 to get advice on “optimal business configuration” and announced it was shipping more jobs to Asia the following year. That narrative, one of countless like it, might have come in handy last week when Obama was speaking in Ohio, just 30 miles from Goodyear’s headquarters.

As many have noted, the obvious political model for Obama this year is Franklin Roosevelt, who at his legendary 1936 Madison Square Garden rally declared that he welcomed the “hatred” of his enemies in the realms of “business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.” As the historian David Kennedy writes in his definitive book on the period, “Freedom from Fear,” Roosevelt “had little to lose by alienating the right,” including those in the corporate elite, with such invective; they already detested him as vehemently as the Business Roundtable crowd does Obama.

Though F.D.R. was predictably accused of “class warfare,” his antibusiness “radicalism,” was, in Kennedy’s words, “a carefully staged political performance, an attack not on the capitalist system itself but on a few high-profile capitalists.” Roosevelt was trying to co-opt the populist rage of his economically despondent era, some of it uncannily Tea Party-esque in its hysteria, before it threatened that system, let alone his presidency. Only the crazy right confused F.D.R. with communists for taking on capitalism’s greediest players, and since our crazy right has portrayed Obama as a communist, socialist and Nazi for months, he’s already paid that political price without gaining any of the benefits of bringing on this fight in earnest.

F.D.R. presided over a landslide in 1936. The best the Democrats can hope for in 2010 is smaller-than-expected losses. To achieve even that, Obama will have to give an F.D.R.-size performance — which he can do credibly and forcibly only if he really means it. So far, his administration’s seeming coziness with some of the same powerful interests now vilifying him has left middle-class voters, including Democrats suffering that enthusiasm gap, confused as to which side he is on. If ever there was a time for him to clear up the ambiguity, this is it.

Cancer Growth Needs Angiogenesis or Blood Vessels Five Foods to Stop or Slow Growth

Tags: Cancer Growth Needs Angiogenesis or Blood Vessels Five Foods to Stop or Slow Growth, Bok Choy, Cooked Tomatoes, Flounder Omega 3, Strawberries, and Artichoke, Increased by Republicans

As I mentioned a number of times, we just cannot avoid cancers from forming in our bodies. The key things we must do is to prevent their growth and spread. Many anti-angiogenesis drugs have been developed with mixed results due to side effects and infectiveness and perhaps being applied too late before it spreads.

For too long we have been using chemical warfare chemicals to kill all cells, but cancer cells preferentially because they grow much faster. Very little research had been funded under the Reagan and beyond administrations because a great bias towards leaving this to Big Pharma and small more research oriented firms who have been more successful which has led to Big Pharma buying the small drug company stocks and eventually company. Then more risky research slows considerably.

One of things President Obama did was to double the funding for NIH (National Institutes of Health) which can do high quality research by either doing it themselves or more likely funding promising research. I suspect, but do not know whether the recent vitamin D revolution occurred because professors got enough funding to carry out larger studies or not, but nothing happens by accident. The Democratic House passed 400 Obama bills, often with Republican support, but our senate Republicans will and have done everything in their power using ancient senate rules to stop legislation. Many of bills helpful to Americans have not even been brought up because of Republican opposition to bills they supported in the past.

The Republicans have left our health situation in shambles including corporate Healthcare and cutting the budgets for the FDA, NIH, allowing the widespread use of High Fructose Corn Syrup which allowed much higher levels of fructose into our diets, especially in soft drinks and prepared foods.

Scientific studies has proven that Fructose not only greatly increases obesity because it makes us eat more, but the side products produce in liver metabolism and cell metabolism of fructose increases both heart disease and cancers. Sure fewer people are dying, but the number of people who survive has increased, especially for breast cancer, but more are getting treated for cancer.

The great increase in obesity has led to children producing fat based estrogen at an early and get breasts at age 8 now, especially among the Blacks who eat lots of cheap Fast Foods thanks to our dear Republicans, especially Reagan and the Dept of Agriculture and the Big Five Food Producers who make fiber stripped tasteless foods from cheap subsidized corn and soybeans flavor enhanced with lots of fructose sugar.

Politics: Republicans are using politics to make our National Security less secure by enraging Muslims all over the world while the Moslem countries have all moved towards moderation with the exception of a few such as Iran. The recent problems with a mail-order degreed minister threatening to burn the Koran has led to many incidents throughout our country. The Republicans are willing to win the race at any cost to Americans' security.

We have seen the effects of religious extremism throughout human history leading to genocides by Religious fanatics in both Christians, Muslims, and Pagans alike.

Humans are the only species that has a prefrontal cortex that allows us to have good judgement. Diseases such as parietal epilepsies, and prefrontal cortical injuries have resulted in complete change in the behavior of previously intelligent and well controlled individuals into liars, thieves, adulteress, and uncontrolled greed. Individuals differ widely in how much prefrontal cortical control we have. Some live an emotional life while others may think too much such as myself.

People in lower positions in our economy are not forgiven for outrageous behavior, but we seem to follow those in power or powerful positions such as politicians to lie for political advantage which are outrageous but still accepted by their Stepford Followers. The Wall Street Journal surprisingly found that people who watch television news take off their thinking cap and just feel. That is why most news now is directed towards our emotions rather than our intellect. Exceptions are Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and a few others at MSNBC, Fareed Zakaria of CNN, and Amanpour of ABC. Sure others appeal to both our intellect and emotions, but they tend to get better ratings when dealing with emotional, but trivial topics.

Jim Kawakami, Sept 12, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/stop-cancer-growing?hs317=billboard_2

ADDED TO ARTICLES ON FRI 09/10/2010

Cancer Angiogenesis Five Foods Reduce Rate of Blood Vessels in Tumors

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/5-foods-starve-cancer Disturbing new research suggests that microscopic cancer, small cancer cells that can only been seen under a microscope, is widely prevalent. A recent study of women in their 40s indicated that 40% of them had microscopic breast cancer. Even more shocking, almost 100% of people in their 70s will have microscopic cancer in their thyroid glands.

A microscopic tumor can grow up to 16,000 times its original size in as little as 2 weeks. But new groundbreaking research from The Angiogenesis Foundation proposes that you can stop cancer before it begins to grow. This new preventive approach is called anti-angiogenesis. To learn more about anti-angiogenesis and the groundbreaking research at The Angiogenesis Foundation, click here. Anti-angiogenesis encourages that, by changing the way you eat, you can change your “internal environment,” thereby depriving cancer cells the opportunity to grow and multiply.

Certain foods, eaten in the correct portions and frequency, can provide cancer-starving benefits. Below are 5 foods to eat that can prevent cancer growth:

1. Bok Choy This type of Chinese cabbage contains brassinin; a powerful cancer-fighter, also found in broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Bok Choy should be eaten 3 times a week, in 1/2 cup servings to obtain its full benefits.
2. Cooked Tomatoes have more cancer-fighting properties than raw tomatoes. Both contain the molecule lycopene, but heating the tomato changes its chemical structure and makes the benefits more readily available to your body. You should eat 2-3 (1/2 cup) servings of cooked tomatoes a week.
3. Flounder This fish is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and low in mercury. Three 6-ounce servings a week is ideal.
4. Strawberries The antioxidants in this berry help fight cancers. You should eat 1 cup a day, including the juice.
5. Artichokes contain 3 different cancer-fighting molecules. Enjoy ¼ cup of hearts per day.

Economy Bottom 80% Do Much Better Democratic Presidents One Graph Shows Why

Tags: Democratic Presidents Favor Americans While Republicans Favor the Richest, Need a Democratic Resurgence to Make Life Livable Again Including both Work and Leisure

Americans no longer learn or can learn much from the written word tragically. That is why increasing emphasis has been put into pictures and videos to pass the message they want. The BP propaganda ads are quite good where we see smiling “common workers” praising BP for its work. Very effective. The Big Pharma ads work this way too even though they warn viewers about the train load of bad side effects, viewers only see the smiling images.

Republicans use images and scary music in their political ads taking advantage of hired psychologists to shape the voters mind with fear by constant repetition. Thanks to the Roberts and Alito Corporate Supreme Court, unlimited amounts of money can be spent through front groups as the Chamber of Commerce run by the board members such as Blankenship whose poor safety record killed 29 coal miners. Do we want those people to run our country? Radical religious work the same way.

When Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, was asked why German is doing so well, she emphatically stated “We Make Things!”

We do not really have a Free Market system except the powerful countries penetrating poorer countries. So we have to make a choice. Do we favor Americans or do we favor International Corporations only? Do we want to have dictatorial capitalism such as Hitler, Mussolini had or as China has now? We are rapidly approaching a Fascist State where wealthy controls everything if we are not there now.

How do they control us? They Keep us dumb and entertained. Orwell in 1984 prescience transcends time by anticipating what is happening to our democracy. He saw how governments work, the Communist, Fascist systems, and so-called Democracies where the wealth and power rule. in the Spain Civil War which he was involved. Good people turn bad to survive. That is where we are now.

Based on the recent economic data, only the top one to two percent are making big advances while the bottom 99% during the Bush Republican to 2005 regime went down to 1973 average income levels.

Jim Kawakami, Sept 9, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Why elections matter, in one graph

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/ I've been trying to figure out how to link to Timothy Noah's series on inequality, which falls under the rubric of "things you should read that I have nothing to say about." One thing I can say is that Noah, Catherine Mulbrandon and Slate have put an enormous amount of work into creating visuals to accompany the articles, and the results are really impressive. This graph, for instance, is the best visualization I've seen of Larry Bartels’s striking data showing how different income groups do under Republican and Democratic presidents:

Much more here.

By Ezra Klein | September 8, 2010; 11:44 AM ET

The United States of Inequality

THE GREAT DIVERGENCE:

ENTRIES Computer Exceptionalism

By Timothy Noah

Posted Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010, at 11:07 PM ET http://www.slate.com/id/2266025/pagenum/all/

ENIAC computer, late 1940s or early 1950s

"What you earn," Bill Clinton said more than once when he was president, "is a function of what you can learn." That had always been true, but Clinton's point was that at the close of the 20^th century it was becoming more true, because computers were transforming the marketplace. A manufacturing-based economy was giving way to a knowledge-based economy that had an upper class and a lower class but not much of a middle class.

The top was occupied by a group that Clinton's first labor secretary, Robert Reich, labeled "symbolic analysts." These were people who "simplify reality into abstract images that can be rearranged, juggled, or experimented with" using "mathematical algorithms, legal arguments, financial gimmicks, scientific principles, psychological insights," and other tools seldom acquired without a college or graduate degree. At the bottom were providers of "in-person services" like waitressing, home health care, and security. The middle, once occupied by factory workers, stenographers, and other moderately skilled laborers, was disappearing fast. … http://www.slate.com/id/2266025/pagenum/all/

Economy Financials Foreign Policy Trash on Internet Snopes.com

Tags: Trash Over the Internet, Economy, Best Way to Teach, Best Way to Learn: The Real Story

Elaine and Geraldine,

If we count wars and USA bases overseas, we sure do give mucho foreign aid and the fake or not survey below doesn't mean anything. The only reason we give countries any money is for our own interests such as oil and minerals. Israel has long been our policeman and enforcer in the Middle East, a role that has been diminishing because Israel has no oil and we import or about 73.6% of all our consumption. Brazil will become a big player if they give in to companies such as BP to do their deep water drilling. Ha! Ha! http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries

June 2010 Import Highlights: August 30, 2010 Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in June 2010 has been released and it shows that four countries exported more than 1.00 million barrels per day to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 64 percent of United States crude oil imports in June while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 87 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top five sources of US crude oil imports for June were Canada (2.197 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.348 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.066 million barrels per day), Nigeria (1.066 million barrels per day), and Venezuela (0.850 million barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Iraq (0.630 million barrels per day), Russia (0.437 million barrels per day), Angola (0.425 million barrels per day), Colombia (0.387 million barrels per day), and Algeria (0.375 million barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 10.145 million barrels per day in June, which is an increase of 0.523 million barrels per day from May 2010. Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in June, exporting 2.733 million barrels per day to the United States, which is an increase from last month (2.527 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Saudi Arabia with 1.353 million barrels per day.

These ignoramus also upset me because so many ignorant Americans, even intelligent ones, believe this crap. If someone or some country does not agree with some of our misguided policies, they are wrong and disloyal as Republican minded Americans think and their thoughts influence all Americans. There are good reasons to be paranoid, but the true culprits are the BIG BANKS who have hijacked our country, our politicians, and the minds of many Americans.

The book "How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer 2009, is a must read book for those of us who really want to understand how we think with our emotions which is extremely fast, but can be wrong. Creativity is such a process which dropped 20 percent since the Internet came into full use and why Americans now get information in Sound Bites on the Internet so think like Sound Bites. Skimming and distractions while reading gives one a Shallow mind.

I was constantly asked by my very intelligent management how did I solve problems too difficult for the smartest (Ivy League) chemists and engineers. I was too embarrassed to tell them I don't know. It came as a flash which all really creative solutions all come. Jonah Lehrer tells me why.

One think Important for All Teachers is that the worst thing you can tell your students that you got the answer because you are very smart. Those who praise the hard work and effort of the students greatly helps their ability to learn. The smart ones learn to keep quiet unless they are sure of something before they give and answer. The secret in teaching is to praise your students for hard work and allow them to make mistakes. That is really how we all learn! Don't embarrass your students. How did we get our former leaders who made all the great advances before all these New Ways of Teaching.

Although many of my best friends have high IQs, I still treat everyone as equals and really enjoy talking to everyone which I can do in Eugene, but not Los Angeles or New York.

Strangely, I am astonished at how easily I upset Professors at the University of Oregon when I ask questions that they cannot answer!

The wife of a geology professor who has a Ph.D. from the prestigious University of Chicago under Friedman got very upset when I contradicted her theories with evidence. I guess I am not good company for those who don't like questions for debate. I guess that is why I have so many Jewish friends who love to debate because it is in their souls. It is the only way to learn. Don't be afraid to make mistakes!

A more difficult book to read is Shallows by Nicholas Carr which goes into brain research at the neuron level. At first Carr's book and conclusions were ridiculed, but those who make their living on the net concede now that our knowledge is shallow now.

It cements my conclusion about President Obama and why he has made so many political mistakes although well meaning. Presidents don't have the option of really understanding what they do not understand. They have to know who to believe and it is not just logic, it is experience of the right kind. That is why leaders in the Senate are often good Presidents because they have the right experience.

The wealthy and powerful like to put inexperienced Democrats to bear the brunt of what Republicans have done to screw up the economy. Carter was one and Obama is another one. Hillary Clinton would have been a much better President. She was a leader even in elementary school! Lots of bad things happen to us under the radar!

Don't believe that voters are manipulated by Wealth and Power? You make a perfect servant as many with Ivy League education have been doing for a very long time.

The highest paid CEOs are the most ruthless ones that are willing to fire employees wholesale as they have all have done to increase profits. The stupid CEOs in the cabinets and Executive branch of the Bush fiasco is just one example.

On Friday on Need to Know on PBS always has interesting and important information in a brief format. It is run by the current editor of Newsweek, Meacham, who will resign when the new editor is selected. It is fact based rather than ideological as most PBS programs try to be. Corporations and Republicans don't like the truth so when they are in power, they try to undermine PBS by picking someone to sabotage PBS as was done during the Bush administration. The fight to keep Bill Moyers off the air was fierce!

All the proposals made by Obama and Democrats to improve jobs and infrastructure is chicken feed compared to how much the Federal Reserves has "loaned" to the banks. They will pay back with inflated dollars so we can't blame them for taking all they can.

Bob Ivry of Bloomberg News http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/economy/the-true-cost-of-the-bank-bailout/3309/ said the Federal Reserves loaned out $7.7 Trillion so far by printing money, Paulson's Treasury gave out $2.7 Trillion, and the FDIC $2.0 Trillion!!! It is probably more and the Federal Reserve which is made up of PRIVATE BANKS refused to disclose the information to congress. The Paulson Tarp Passed in the Bush term.

Isn't it about time we get rid of the federal reserve so the banks are really punished for taking risks greater than those taken by commodity traders? Just like Big Oil under Teddy Roosevelt. We must break up the monopolies in Banking. We saw under the breakup of AT&T that innovation came about. Unfortunately under Republican rule including Clinton, especially Bush and Reagan, consolidation accelerated. Big companies don't like to take risks as small companies must to thrive. Which would you want?

Vote Democrat and vote in the primaries to get the Democrat you want more liberal or more conservative. Republicans are too closely tied to corporations and wealth. The Democrats have to satisfy their voters including Independents so some change is possible. How much depends on voters in the primaries. That is how the radical Republicans transformed the party.

Economy: Retail sales are going like gangbusters as I predicted. Being completely in bonds including government Ten Year Treasuries is quite dangerous. Inflation might take ten years or more to come, but come it will. My guess it will be sooner than later. Yes, investing requires a lot of guessing. Once the facts are known, it is too late to invest. Unfortunately most Americans invest this way. How to avoid this? Read a book or two. Knowledge puts things in perspective and you might become skeptical about all the analysts who are too optimistic or too pessimistic at the wrong time.

Jim Kawakami, Sept 7, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

WHAT: 6th Annual Monetary Reform Conference, American Monetary Institute

WHERE: Roosevelt University, downtown Chicago

WHEN: September 30 - October 3

Registration/Donation: $395, or special $175 Admission for qualified students and activists dedicated to monetary reform. Reduced room rate until Sept 16 at select hotels, details at link below. http://www.monetary.org/2010schedule.html My contact info: Geri at 708-460-5683

The true cost of the bank bailout

Need to Know, PBS, Bob Ivry Bloomberg News, September 3rd, 2010

We all know about TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which spent $700 billion in taxpayers’ money to bail out banks after the financial crisis. That money was scrutinized by Congress and the media.

But it turns out that that $700 billion is just a small part of a much larger pool of money that has gone into propping up our nation’s financial system. And most of that taxpayer money hasn’t had much public scrutiny at all.

According to a team at Bloomberg News, at one point last year the U.S. had lent, spent or guaranteed as much as $12.8 trillion to rescue the economy. The Bloomberg reporters have been following that money. Alison Stewart spoke with one, Bob Ivry, to talk about the true cost to the taxpayer of the Wall Street bailout.

Tags: bailout, bank bailout, banks, Bloomberg, Bob Ivry, Congress, financial crisis, financial sector, tarp, Wall Street

Re: Just because someone says it or it is on the Internet ... check Snopes.com

Another one - drives me crazy! Elaine

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/unvote.asp

How they vote in the United Nations:

Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:

Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time

Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time

Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time

United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.

Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.

Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.

Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.

Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.

India votes against the United States 81% of the time.

Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.

Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.

U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:

Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.

Jordan votes 71% against the United States

And receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Pakistan votes 75% against the United States

Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

India votes 81% against the United States

Receives $143,699,000 annually.

WHY?

WHO IN THE HELL STARTED

THIS AND WHY?

THEY ACTUALLY BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.

Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know.

GO GREEN - RECYCLE CONGRESS IN 2010

Finance Goldman in Business of Taking Away People’s Home

Tags: Finance, Goldman Sachs in Business of Taking Away People's Home, How to Grow Poor in America

Goldman Sachs spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages and is now in the business of taking away homes as Bank of America did in the Great Depression to make a huge fortune. We call them vultures or worse. Thousands of small banks failed because they did not get a bailout in the same way Goldman Sachs did from the Open Window at the Federal Reserve.

Bush/Cheney was assembling a private army to protect the rich when the masses revolt when they finally catch on what was happening to them. They were also building massive detention centers which Americans wrongly thought were for the Muslims and may have been for the now strongly Republican angry crowd as always blaming the wrong people. They will at some point starting thinking.

Bush and Cheney who were both very poor students at Yale with Cheney flunking out twice because he did not have a famous father. As we have discovered, instincts or killer instincts are needed in politics rather than an educated brain.

The NFL tried to get the best quarterbacks by giving IQ tests, but failed miserably! All the famous quarterbacks are quite dumb and don’t necessarily have to learn the plays because a lineman can relay the play from the coach to others and fake understanding the play. Sure pro football can be quite complex with so many options to consider, but apparently considerable practice and play gives them an instinct to thrive. So do politicians, especially on the Republican side who get notes from billionaire founded Think Tanks that give them the soundbite for the day.

Jim Kawakami, Sept 2, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Finance Goldman in Business of Taking Away People’s Home By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

McClatchy Newspapers Finalist for Pulitzer Award 2010, Monday November 2, 2009, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/11/02/77841/goldman-takes-on-new-role-taking.html

SAN JOSE, Calif. — When California wildfires ruined their jewelry business, Tony Becker and his wife fell months behind on their mortgage payments and experienced firsthand the perils of subprime mortgages.

The couple wound up in a desperate, six-year fight to keep their modest, 1,500-square-foot San Jose home, a struggle that pushed them into bankruptcy.

The lender with whom they sparred, however, wasn't the one that had written their loans. It was an obscure subsidiary of Wall Street colossus Goldman Sachs Group.

Goldman spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages, many of them from some of the more unsavory lenders in the business, and packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of that market, Goldman finds itself in a different role: as the big banker that takes homes away from folks such as the Beckers.

The couple alleges that Goldman declined for three years to confirm their suspicions that it had bought their mortgages from a subprime lender, even after they wrote to Goldman's then-Chief Executive Henry Paulson — later U.S. Treasury secretary — in 2003.

Unable to identify a lender, the couple could neither capitalize on a mortgage hardship provision that would allow them to defer some payments, nor on a state law enabling them to offset their debt against separate, investment-related claims against Goldman.

In July, the Beckers won a David-and-Goliath struggle when Goldman subsidiary MTGLQ Investors dropped its bid to seize their house. By then, the college-educated couple had been reduced to shopping for canned goods at flea markets and selling used ceramic glass. ...

Workers Abuse, Bottom 99%, Now 1973 Wages Increase in GDP, 1973 4.37 Trillion, 2,000 9.8 T, Q3 2008 $13.2 Trillion, 2008 $13 T, 2010 4th Projected $1

Tags: Workers Abuse, Bottom 99%, Now 1973 Wages Increase in GDP, 1973 4.37 Trillion, 2,000 9.8 T, Q3 2008 $13.2 Trillion, 2008 $13 T, 2010 4th Projected $13.2 Trillion

Reagan and the Republicans started a trend to disenfranchise voters and marginalize workers by increasing corporate power at the expense of workers, many of whom are now paid 1973 wages corrected for inflation. The GDP at the end of 1973 was $4.37 Trillion and at the end of 2000 $9.89 Trillion.

During Bush’s term up to 2006 the GDP went to $11.3 Trillion while the income of the bottom 99% went up One Percent while the TOP ONE PERCENT went up an average of 11 percent. Most of us did not even keep up! 2008 Q3 $13.2 Trillion, Q4 $12.8 Trillion. The projected GDP for 2010 is $13.2 Trillion! Where is the money going? The GDP has caught up to pre-financial meltdown, but are more people at work? http://www.data360.org/dataset.aspx?Data_Set_Id=354

It has been the Republican goal of putting us into serious debt as a nation and people’s so we become powerless to advocate for our needs and desires for a better life and a better life for our children. They are now using their wealth to further put our political power in the hands of corporations and the wealthy. When will it stop? Wake up America!

They have largely succeeded. Wealthy has been transferred from the Middleclass to the Affluent and Wealthy or the top 2 percent who make a minimum of $250,000 per year in family income. Many multimillionaires and billionaires are either contributing massively to help radical Republicans who have the odd mix of Libertarianism and 1890s ruthless Robber Barons which made corporations people with special privileges with the help of the packed Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in a similar manner today with the appointment of Justices Roberts and Alito who probably have the strongest bias towards corporations in the history of the court.

We have now what history calls indentured servants who were tied to their employers to pay off debt with a former Healthcare system that made it close to impossible get affordable individual health insurance. So the abuse by employers increased substantially with the additional help of sending similar jobs overseas to keep wages low with the threat of layoffs continually in the horizon.

Thanks to President Obama passing a Healthcare Bill due to change in 2014 if our Supreme Court does not invalidate it.

This is why corporations held on to Healthcare even though it was expensive. Remember this recession caused by the Bankers allowed corporations to get rid of high income employees with incomes over 55, one of the largest groups of longtime unemployed in the nation. Look to many corporations divesting healthcare and even pensions as Verizon did in the future to gain a few cents more profit per share. No cost in the suffering of expelled employees.

Jim Kawakami, Sept 02, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

After Years of Organizing, Domestic Workers Win Bill of Rights Law in New York Democracy Now Juan Gonzalez, Ai-Jen Poo, Patricia Francois

New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law a measure establishing a landmark set of working standards for housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers. With the signing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, New York becomes the first state where domestic workers will be guaranteed overtime pay after a forty-hour workweek, at least one day off per week, and at least three days off with full pay per year. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/2/after_years_of_organizing_domestic_workers

JUAN GONZALEZ: New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law a measure establishing a landmark set of working standards for housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers. With the signing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, New York becomes the first state where domestic workers will be guaranteed overtime pay after a forty-hour workweek, at least one day off per week, and at least three days off with full pay per year.

The passage of the bill comes after a six-year organizing campaign by Domestic Workers United, an organization led by immigrant nannies, housekeepers and elderly caregivers. Labor organizers are now hoping other states will enact similar laws to protect domestic workers who for decades have not been covered by federal labor laws, including the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

We’re joined now by two guests. Ai-jen Poo is the executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Ten years ago, she helped found Domestic Workers United after meeting a group of Filipina nannies who complained about their working conditions. We’re also joined by Patricia Francois, who has worked for many years as a nanny in New York after moving here from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad.

Welcome to both of you.

AI-JEN POO: Thank you.

PATRICIA FRANCOIS: Thank you.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Ai-jen, the importance of this bill and of the governor signing it, finally?

AI-JEN POO: This bill is really the first time there’s been official recognition of this workforce as a workforce that does vital work and provides a vital service for New York and for this country, and of the injustice of the discrimination that the workforce has faced in the labor law. Having been excluded from almost every major labor law for generations, the workforce has been rendered vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. And so, despite the really important work that the workers do, they’re very vulnerable to abuse. And so, this is the first time that the work is being recognized and the workers are having a minimum standard of protection.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And how—approximately how many domestic workers are there in New York and throughout the nation?

AI-JEN POO: There’s about 200,000 in the metropolitan area in New York and 2.5 million in the United States. …

JUAN GONZALEZ: What were some of the conditions that you labored under previously that now would be eliminated?

PATRICIA FRANCOIS: The abuse—physical abuse, the verbal abuse. We now have some protection, that if it do happen, it is in the attorney general hands, where he can assist us and seek justice, because it’s a human right. …

JUAN GONZALEZ: And again, in terms of some of the key provisions of the bill, were there any that were particularly difficult to get the legislature to pass? Because obviously, in Albany, it’s a mixed bag in terms of—

AI-JEN POO: Absolutely.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —the kind of political support you would get for a bill like this.

AI-JEN POO: Absolutely. And when we first started out, we were demanding a living wage of $14 an hour, healthcare, paid vacation, paid sick days, notice of termination. When the workers came together and developed their vision of what it would mean to have respect and recognition on the job, all of those pieces were really important. So this is an ongoing fight. The paid leave, the three days minimum paid leave that we were able to get included in the bill, is a really important beginning. A lot of workers don’t get paid leave at all. So that establishes a bare minimum. And we need to continue organizing for more.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, there had been a similar bill passed in California by the legislature there, but Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it? … http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/2/after_years_of_organizing_domestic_workers