Reducing corruption?

The amount of money spent on earmarks ("public" projects, funded on govt money, in Senators' hometowns) reached totaled $47 billion in 2005 alone. From Teapot Museums to the Bridge to Nowhere, your representatives have effectively wasted your money. The earmarks are often sneaked into larger bills which are guaranteed to pass. The S.1 bill was drafted into order to put an end to extravagant earmarks and a number of other corrupt acts occurring in Congress. Last week, the bill passed 96 to 2. This sounds good in writing, but we'll to wait to see the actual results in Congress.

Taken from The Library of Congress

Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007 - Authorizes a point of order by any Senator against consideration of a conference report that includes any matter not committed to the conferees by either chamber.

Adds Rule XLIV (Earmarks) to the Standing Rules of the Senate to make it out of order to consider any Senate bill, amendment, or conference report, unless a list of all its earmarks, the identity of the Member or Members proposing them, and an explanation of their essential governmental purpose, along with any associated joint statement of managers, is made available to all Members, and to the general public on the Internet, for at least 48 hours before its consideration.

Amends Rule XXVIII (Conference Committee; Reports; Open Meetings) to make it out of order to consider a conference report unless it is available to all Members and the general public on the Internet for at least 48 hours before its consideration.

Amends Rule XXIII (Privilege of the Floor) to deny floor privileges (except for ceremonial functions and events) to former Senators and Senators elect, Secretaries, Sergeants at Arms of the Senate, and Speakers of the House of Representatives if they: (1) are registered lobbyists or agents of a foreign principal; or (2) are in the employ of or represent any party or organization for the purpose of influencing, directly, or indirectly, the passage, defeat, or amendment of any legislative proposal.

Amends Rule XXXV (Gifts) to exclude gifts from lobbyists or agents of a foreign principal from the gift ban exceptions.

Requires a Member, officer, or employee, before accepting otherwise permissible transportation or lodging from any person other than a governmental entity, to obtain a written certification from such person that includes certain disclaimers regarding a registered lobbyist or foreign agent. Prescribes additional disclosure requirements, including certain information regarding noncommercial air travel.

Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require a publicly available report, in the case of a principal campaign committee of a federal candidate (other than one for President or Vice President), of any flight taken by the candidate on an aircraft not licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate for compensation or hire.

Amends Rule XXXVII (Conflict of Interest) to impose a one-year lobbying moratorium, upon leaving such position, on any employee on the staff of a Member or on the staff of a committee meeting specified rate of pay and congressional employment criteria.

Prohibits a Senator from directly negotiating or having any arrangement concerning prospective private employment until after the election for his or her successor has been held, unless public disclosure of such employment negotiations and arrangements is provided.

Requires a Member to prohibit all of his or her staff from having any official contact with the Member's spouse or immediate family member if such individual is a registered lobbyist or is employed or retained by a registered lobbyist to influence legislation.

Amends Rule XLIII (Representation by Members) to prohibit a Member, with the intent to influence on the basis of partisan political affiliation an employment decision or employment practice of any private entity, from: (1) taking or withholding, or offering or threatening to take or withhold, an official act; or (2) influencing, or offering or threatening to influence, the official act of another.

The Dangers of Fluoride, Part II

It took until 2006 for the ADA's alert, following the Food and Drug Administration's October disapproval of fluoridated bottled water marketed to babies,(6) and after the recent National Research Council's (NRC) fluoride report indicated babies are fluoride overdosed from "optimally" fluoridated water supplies (7).

Sources:
(6)FDA
(7)NAP

Yet Walmart continues to market Fluoridated Water for infants.
Sign the petition against Walmart here!



To learn about the negative effects of Fluoride
and why it is so dangerous, read below:

Fluoride & the Pineal Gland: Study Published in Caries Research

The wheels of science grind very slowly. Finally, the first half of the work that was the subject of Jennifer Luke's Ph.D. thesis; presentation in Bellingham, Washington (ISFR conference) in 1998 and a videotaped interview I had with her (see www.fluoridealert.org/videos.htm), has been published in Caries Research.

In my view this work is of enormous importance and could be (or should be) the scientific straw that breaks the camel's back of fluoridation.

When Luke found out that the pineal gland - a little gland in the center of the brain, responsible for a very large range of regulating activities (it produces serotonin and melatonin) - was also a calcifying tissue, like the teeth and the bones, she hypothesized it would concentrate fluoride to very high levels. The gland is not protected by the blood brain barrier and has a very high perfusion rate of blood, second only to the kidney.

Luke had 11 cadavers analyzed in the UK. As she predicted she found astronomically high levels of fluoride in the calcium hydroxy apatite crystals produced by the gland. The average was 9000 ppm and went as high as 21,000 in one case. These levels are at, or higher, than fluoride levels in the bones of people suffering from skeletal fluorosis. It is these findings which have just been published.

It is the ramifications of these findings which have yet to be published. In the second half of her work she treated animals (Mongolian gerbils) with fluoride at a crack pineal gland research unit at the University of Surrey, UK (so there is no question about the quality of this work). She found that melatonin production (as measured by the concentration of a melatonin metabolite in the urine) was lower in the animals treated with high fluoride levels compared with those treated with low levels.

Luke hypothesizes that one of the four enzymes needed to convert the amino acid tryptophan (from the diet) into melatonin is being inhibited by fluoride. It could be one of the two enzymes which convert tryptophan to serotonin or one of the two which convert serotonin to melatonin.

Significance? Huge. Melatonin is reponsible for regulating all kinds of activities and there is a vast amount of work investigating its possible roles in aging, cancer and many other life processes. The one activity that Luke is particularly interested in is the onset of puberty. The highest levels of melatonin ( produced only at night) is generated in young children. It is thought that it is the fall of these melatonin levels which acts like a biological clock and triggers the onset of puberty. In her gerbil study she found that the high fluoride treated animals were reaching puberty earlier than the low fluoride ones.

We know from recent studies - and considerable press coverage - that young girls are reaching puberty earlier and earlier in the US. Luke is not saying that fluoride (or fluoridation) is the cause but her work waves a very worrying red flag. Fluoride's role in earlier puberty needs more thorough investigation. Of an interesting historical note, in the Newburgh versus Kingston fluoridation trial (1945-1955), it was found that the girls in fluoridated Newburgh were reaching menstruation, on average, five months earlier than the girls in unfluoridated Kingston, but the result was not thought to be significant at the time (Schlessinger et al, 1956).

When one considers the seriousness of a possible interference by fluoride on a growing child's pineal gland (and for that matter, elderly pineal glands) it underlines the recklessness of fluoridation. The precautionary principle would say, as would basic common sense, that you don't take these kind of risks with our children for a benefit which, at best, amounts to 0.6 tooth surfaces out of 128 tooth surfaces in a child's mouth (Brunelle and Carlos, 1990, Table 6).

For more information please visit:

Fluoride Statement

Fluoride Accumulates in Pineal Gland

the true timeline of Saddam

A short, accurate film of the CIA's real relationship with Saddam Hussien:

http://www.bushflash.com/thanks.html

The US government put this man in power, armed him deadly weapons, and used him to their short-sighted advantages. It is not a coincidence that at this point in 2006, this all time low in troop moral and public faith in the president, Saddam is executed. A cellphone video of the hanging is "leaked" onto the internet. All these actions of US propaganda are designed to justify the unjustifiable war on Iraq.

Well, no one cares anymore because we can see through these loosely knit lies. Even if it actually was Saddam being executed in that video (remember, he had countless body doubles) it doesn't matter. There are so many other leaders/generals/psychopaths alive who have committed even greater war crimes and crimes against humanity. Let's even the playing field and kill them all.

Or what if we confront murderers with compassion, instead of sinking to their own cruel levels. Is it possible we could create a better world if we replace the tactics of hate and fear with understanding and love? This mode of thought has worked in the past: In Iroquois culture, capital punishment and prison were never installed; instead, violators were reintegrated into society, with serious offenders sentenced to community service. This method of living worked for centuries, until the arrival of the Europeans and their backwards ways. Unfortunately, we have been stuck in that cycle ever since.

So it is up to people like you and me to change this pattern and develop a more civilized, thoughtful and caring way of life. Start right at home with how you treat your neighbors, friends and family. Take time to talk with the people who bag your groceries, sweep your floors and pump your gas. The world will start to change the moment we begin treating each other like human beings.

Sincerley,

The Professional Revolutionists