Massive Government and Private Sector Job Cuts Coming : Mish Shedlock

* Massive Government and Private Sector Job Cuts Coming -

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis/~3/322336730/massive-government-and-private-sector.html

CNN Money is reporting State, city layoffs: 45,000 and counting.

With falling revenue from sales and income taxes, and property-tax declines looming, states, cities and towns have already laid off tens of thousands of government employees. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a public employees union, says about 45,000 government layoffs have been announced this year.

There are 29 states, including California, Florida and Ohio, facing a combined budget shortfall of at least $48 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a liberal think tank.

There are nearly 20 million state and local government employees in the country. So a 1% decline in employment at cities, towns, schools and states would result in a job loss of almost 200,000 people, a much larger amount than we've seen from battered sectors such as automakers or home builders in the past two years.The effect of those layoffs will far outweigh any benefit of the economic stimulus package, much of which was already spent. We must use the word benefit loosely because government giving away money it does not have never produces any economic benefit.

Bank of America To Cut 7,500

MarketWatch is reporting Bank of America sees 7,500 job cuts after Countrywide close.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) said Thursday it expects to make about 7,500 job cuts after acquiring Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) . Affected employees will start finding out their fate in the third quarter. "Citigroup to cut 6,500

The TimesOnline is reporting Citigroup and Goldman Sachs cut more staff.

Citigroup, America's largest bank, is expected to cut up to 6,500 investment banking jobs as much as 10 per cent of its roughly 65,000 headcount worldwide. It is believed that entire trading desks in New York, London and other cities will be eliminated. Senior managing directors will not be immune from the layoffs.

In April, Citigroup said that 9,000 jobs would go on top of the 21,000 eliminated in the past year. [This is yet another 6,500 - Mish]175,000 Financial Cuts Coming

Bloomberg is reporting Financial Firms May Make Deeper Cuts, Eliminate 175,000 Jobs.

The world's biggest financial firms may lose as many as 175,000 jobs by this time next year as Citigroup Inc. and other banks shed workers amid slowing revenue and billions in writedowns, executive recruiters say.

"The worst is yet to come," Russ Gerson, head of New York- based recruiting firm Gerson Group, said yesterday in an interview. "We are going to have a major contraction. This is affecting all areas of the investment banking universe and it's affecting all areas globally."

New York-based Bear Stearns Cos. is cutting more than 9,000 jobs, or 66 percent of its workforce, as it was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Zurich-based UBS AG has announced 7,000 job cuts, and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has trimmed 6,300 employees.

The Independent Budget Office in Manhattan said in a report issued last month that it expects 33,300 finance jobs in the city, or 7.1 percent of the total, to be cut from the peak in 2007. The industry lost 52,500 jobs in New York during the 2000- to-2003 market drop.

About 17 percent of banking and securities jobs in New York were wiped out from 2000 to 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The current round of cuts may claim 35 percent to 40 percent of the industry, said Gary Goldstein, chairman of New York-based financial recruitment firm Whitney Group.

"They just keep chopping heads," Goldstein said. "They'll wake up one day and realize that they've cut too deep and now these businesses have come back and they don't have anybody to do them."Goldstein Needs To Wake Up

This is the backside of Peak Credit.

None of the financial engineering jobs that fueled this credit boom will ever be needed again. SIVs, Conduits, Toggle Bonds, Covenant Lite loans are all dead for years, more likely decades to come. Add to that liar loans, Pay Option Arms, insane leverage, and numerous other ridiculous lending arrangements. And if those things are not coming back, we do not need Wall Street shills to securitize that garbage and pitch it to unsuspecting suckers.

More Mergers Coming Up

There are undoubtedly more bank mergers coming up. The strong swallow the weak to the point the strong become weak. And with each merger there will be more job cuts, massive job cuts. Bank of America's announced cutback of 7,500 related to its acquiring Countrywide is just a small down payment of what's coming down the pike.

Unemployment is poised to soar. Few are prepared for it.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Palestinian youth launch campaign to sue British government

He stressed that Britain should “bear moral and political responsibilities for what happened to the Palestinian people, and that the British people should be at the forefront of the peoples of the world who defend the Palestinian cause and back the Palestinian people for independent statehood and self-determination.”

read more | digg story

WAR CRIMES DOSSIER: another Iraqi massacre!

IRAQI CIVILIANS MASSACRED BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS NEAR BAIJI


Family Members and Friends Killed as They Waited for Relative's Release

Iraqwar.ru

June 27, 2008

On May 20, 2008 in the village of Al Mazraa, near Baiji, Salahuddin Province, Iraq-

Eight relatives and a neighbor on their way to a homecoming party for a detainee released from Camp Bucca were shot and killed by American soldiers as they waited on the road outside the neighborhood. American soldiers were conducting raids in the area, so neighbors had advised the family to stay away from the area until the patrol was over.

As the two car convoy was waiting nearby, an American helicopter nearby opened fire on the vehicles. As the vehicles were hit, the drivers attempted to seek cover, but both vehicles were repeatedly shot and disabled. The helicopter landed but instead of assisting those shot and needing medical help, the American soldiers killed any survivors and then wrote numbers on the foreheads of some. Several children including a young girls body are clearly visible, and the wounds suffered by the men are horrific. The vehicle is clearly shot with many rounds and the seats and road is covered with blood. Iraqi police were called to the scene to remove the bodies, and some video footage was taken. It is clear that these people were unarmed civilians.

American troops did eventually enter the house where over 50 Iraqis were gathered for the homecoming party, and the soldiers proceeded to destroy furniture and belongings as they conducted their search. No one in the house was harmed.

The names of those killed:

Sabah Rasheed Matrood
Saab Rasheed Matrood
Kamel Badr Daher
Ali Badr Daher
Udei Badr Daher
Fateh Haref Nouar
Abdul Rahman Kamel Badr

May they rest in Peace.

Meanwhile, contrast this LIEING SMIRKING CHIMP's PRESS STATEMENT for today!

Disgusting! Totally disgusting!
Screw the lamestream news!

Statement by the Press Secretary

29/June/2008

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of California and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local response efforts in the area struck by wildfires beginning on June 20, 2008, and continuing.

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the counties of Butte, Mendocino, Monterey, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, and Trinity.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

R. David Paulison, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Michael J. Hall as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FEMA (202) 646-4600.

Yeah, here is the new and horrible compassionate society!!

The George HW BuZh & BushCo

Compassionate society !!

What would happen re detainees after US election: Jordan J. Paust

US Duties to Detainees During a Withdrawal from Iraq

JURIST Contributing Editor Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center says that so long as the United States is an occupying power or exercises effective control in any part of Iraq it must ensure that it is meeting its obligations to detainees under international law and the laws of war.

---

Both presumptive presidential nominees are likely to attempt to downsize US military forces operating within Iraq if elected to the presidency. Obama would do so in a responsible manner, perhaps over a period of months, whereas McCain would leave US troops in-country for decades and downsize over a period of years. In either case, it is worth contemplating what might happen to persons who are detained by US military or other personnel in Iraq, or who are otherwise within effective US control. Is there a need for agreement concerning the detainees?

As a former and apparently present occupying power over any portion of Iraqi territory under its effective control, the US has responsibilities under the laws of war with respect to detained persons, and will have until any form of effective occupation ends. Such responsibilities continue to involve the absolute prohibitions of torture and cruel, inhuman, degrading, or humiliating treatment at US hands or in complicity with others. These prohibitions are also part of customary international law reflected in common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and are applicable to detained persons of any status. Also of interest is the absolute obligation under Articles 49 and 147 of the 1949 Geneva Civilian Convention to not transfer non-prisoners of war out of occupied territory or out of the theater of war within a country of detention such as Iraq. Under Article 4 of the Convention, it is clear that the protections under Articles 49 and 147 even reach nationals of a neutral state or a co-belligerent state while they are outside the actual territory of the detaining state (e.g., while outside U.S. territory). Persons who are security threats can continue to be detained under Articles 5 and 78 of the Geneva Civilian Convention if such is necessary for reasons of security and if there is periodic review of their status and release when detention is no longer necessary, but non-prisoners of war cannot be transferred out of Iraq. It is possible, therefore, that the US will attempt to continue to detain certain individuals within Iraq even after a significant withdrawal of US military forces, but US competence to do so would hinge on continuation of the applicability of Geneva law to an area, however small, where the US continues to exercise effective control.

Treaty-based and customary human rights law along with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), contrary to the Bush Administration, clearly apply wherever the US exercises effective control or jurisdiction over detainees, and such laws require that the US not transfer persons under its control to any country, including Iraq, if there is a “real risk” that the persons transferred will suffer human rights violations. Article 3 of the CAT also mandates that no party to the treaty “shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” More generally, complicit behavior by a state or its officials and its other nationals can create “state responsibility” under international law (which can lead to political, diplomatic, economic, and juridic sanctions against the state) and individual criminal and civil liability.

In view of the probable continuation of U.S. control of certain persons within Iraq (persons who, under Geneva law, cannot lawfully be transferred out of Iraq) and in view of continued US responsibilities under treaty-based and customary international law, it would seem to be in the interest of the US to offer the following clause with respect to any future agreement with the government of Iraq concerning US downsizing of troops and future relations and responsibilities between the US and Iraqi governments and their military forces:

“All persons in the hands of the US or in any other manner under effective US control who are protected in any manner under the 1949 Geneva Conventions shall remain under the complete jurisdiction and control of the US and shall not be transferred to any state where there is a real risk of deprivation of their human rights.”

Jordan J. Paust is the Mike & Teresa Baker Law Center Professor at the University of Houston, a former U.S. Army JAG officer, and member of the Faculty of the Judge Advocate General’s School. Discussion of some of the abovementioned and other duties of the U.S. appears in an earlier article: “The United States as Occupying Power Over Portions of Iraq and Special Responsibilities Under the Laws of War, 27 Suffolk Transnat’l L. Rev. 1 (2003).

Video on hidden Canadian uranium mining

Strong scientific evidence shows that particles released into the air and water during uranium mining and processing contribute to increased rates of cancer and organ damage, especially in children. The CBC recently reported that 4 out of 9 people screened had radioactive chemicals in their bones after living near a uranium processing facility.
Jeff Rense Show. JUNE 6, 2008.

Category: News & Politics

Tags:

nuclear power cancerous toxic air water uranium mining processing

Interesting news items today

Arab thinkers voice concern over US-Iraq security deal
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:45:40
Samer Dadaa, Press TV, Damascus

Bush, Talabani discuss US-Iraq security pact
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:03:44
Mike Kellerman, Press TV, Washington

Gerry Adams calls for Northern Ireland reunification
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:02:11
Roshan Mohammed Salih, Press TV, London

GAO report cites insufficient results in US 2007 military surge
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:30:10
Jihan Hafiz, Press TV, Washington

Israel closes Gaza crossings despite truce
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:49:21
Yousef Al-Helou, Pess TV, Gaza

Amnesty Int'l slams tolerance of torture
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:40:54

Amnesty International accuses Europe of enactment over serious torture issues

Amnesty International has slammed Europe for tolerating human rights abuse and torture, highlighting cases that support its claims.

Coinciding with the UN's International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Amnesty International has issued a report accusing European governments of complicity and inaction over US-led rendition and secret detention by which people have been unlawfully detained and transferred from one country to another outside of any judicial process.

The report focuses on a number of notorious rendition cases, one of whom is Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian national and UK resident, rendered in 2002, allegedly tortured in Morocco and now detained for nearly fours years without trial at Guantanamo Bay.

"European governments are in a state of denial and have been sidestepping the truth for too long," said Amnesty International. "Their involvement in renditions and secret detention runs in stark contrast to their claims to be responsible actors in the fight against terrorism."

The report highlights six cases involving 13 individuals, details the involvement of European states.

This ranges from governments permitting CIA flights headed for rendition circuits to use European airports and airspace, as with Shannon Airport, to hosting secret detention centers, or "black sites" and includes the participation by security services from European states in interrogations of their own citizens while concealing their whereabouts from their families.

Also US detainees are being regularly transferred to detention centers such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; a facility known for its brazen use of torture to extract information from prisoners.

A number of individuals have also been subjected to enforced disappearance and the whereabouts of some three dozen people remain unknown. Every one of the victims of rendition interviewed by Amnesty International has said they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated in custody.

FBA/MMN

Why is nothing said about CANADA? It used Goosebay for landings, it did illegal interrogations, it refuses to obey court orders to release Omar Khadr and there are "detainees" going around talking about their abuse !! And then there's the curious case of CHINA which "observed" illegal interrogations at Guantanamo Bay .. yet where is the international torture prosecutor on this?

Oh, yeah, I forgot! Canadian Amnesty International is ABOVE THE LAW !! And I should know.

"Detainee" kangaroo courts update

Judge threatens to suspend war court trial

crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- A military judge in the trial of Canadian captive Omar Khadr threatened Thursday to suspend the terror trial unless the prison camp releases a detailed log of Khadr's treatment in more than five years of detention as an alleged al Qaeda terrorist.

Khadr, 21, is accused of throwing a hand grenade in a July 2002 firefight between U.S. forces and al Qaeda suspects in Afghanistan. A Special Forces medic, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M., died of his wounds. Khadr was 15.

His attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, wants the log in a pretrial effort to limit the scope of evidence given to a jury of U.S. military officers at his upcoming trial, expected in late summer. He argues the circumstances of some interrogations would exclude some of his statements from the trial.

Thursday morning, the military judge, Army Col. Peter E. Brownback III, agreed with the defense that it should get copies of the log entries from the prison camp's Detainee Information Management System, or DIMS.

Brownback is believed to be the first war court judge to threaten to ''abate'' the proceedings if the prison camp's command staff does not turn over the evidence.

''I find that this is relevant because it shows the day-by-day, hour-by-hour track of Mr. Khadr throughout his detention here at Guantánamo Bay,'' the colonel said.

The extensive document is "a method of determining how he went through the system.''

The hearing took place in the original military commissions courtroom, an old air traffic control tower on a hill overlooking "Camp Justice.''

A day earlier, war court staff retreated from the Pentagon's showcase $12 million ''Expeditionary Legal Complex'' following a series of technical glitches, including a power outage, in a first test use of a maximum-security, snoop-proof court created for the trial of six alleged 9/11 conspirators.

The long the Khadr defense team seeks would draw back a layer of secrecy surrounding Khadr's treatment at this offshore Navy base, where the Toronto-born teen grew into bushy-bearded, six-foot-two adulthood behind the razor wire of Camp Delta.

A statement Thursday evening from the prison camps command staff, called the Joint Task Force, or JTF, said the commanders were "working closely with the prosecutors to redact the records for release.''

Redaction is a process of censorship that blacks out information that the Pentagon or other government agencies don't think the public should see.

''This entails a significant effort to redact information which would put JTF personnel at risk,'' the statement added, without elaborating on the nature of the risk.

Defense lawyers argue that Khadr, the son of an alleged senior al Qaeda financier, has been subjected to repeated mistreatment at Guantánamo to reinforce a confession he gave in detention at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

They say he was coerced into a confession soon after his capture, injured with two bullet wounds in his back -- and punished here if he didn't stick to that first account.

Prison camp commanders have consistently denied that Khadr has been mistreated and say all enemy combatants are treated with safety and humanely.

Khadr was sent here in 2002 after his 16th birthday and has been held in the cellblocks with other adult prisoners classified as ''enemy combatants,'' -- not at Iguana House, a special prison camp set up for juvenile combatants since sent home.

Brownback noted that Khadr's defense attorneys -- Kuebler and Rebecca Snyder, a civilian Pentagon lawyer -- are cleared to see any sensitive national security information that might be included in the log.

He set a deadline of 5 p.m. May 22 for authorities to turn over the log or find a remedy for the standoff over access to the details of Khadr's confinement.

''If not,'' Brownback said, "we stop.''

After the hearing, Air Force Maj. Gail Crawford, a military commissions legal expert, said there has been no abatement so far at the war court, which is now receiving pretrial motions in six cases and has charge sheets for seven more in the wings.

''If you can't get discovery, you can't go forward,'' Crawford said.

Brownback's ultimate remedy after abatement, she said, would be to dismiss the charges entirely.

In early 2005, his attorneys sought a criminal investigation into allegations that guards used Khadr as a human mop to clean up an interrogation room at the prison camps.

According to their description, Khadr had been left shackled so long in an interrogation booth in March 2003 that he urinated on himself. To clean it up, they claimed, guards poured a cleaning solvent on his soiled prison camp uniform and dragged him across the floor to wipe it up.

In March, a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said there ``was no evidence to substantiate these claims."

Different war court judges have been struggling with their authority to issues orders related to the running of the prison, a razor-wire-ringed series of camps that sprawl across a bluff overlooking the Caribbean -- several miles from the tribunal building.

The judge in the case of Osama bin Laden's driver, expected to be the first at trial, has set late May for a hearing on the conditions of confinement of the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

Hamdan's lawyers say he is so emotionally unstable after years of isolation in the camps that he is not competent to assist in his defense.

Last week the driver declared he would boycott the proceedings after the judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, postponed a hearing on the topic.

''I don't have any control over the conditions of your confinement,'' Allred told Hamdan. "I've read in the newspapers that you and others are unhappy with them, and I understand that.''

Then Wednesday, a defense attorney in the case of Afghan detainee Mohammed Jawad, captured at 17, point blank asked Brownback whether he had the authority to intervene in the circumstances of his client's captivity. Brownback hedged a reply.

Jawad is accused of throwing a grenade into a U.S. military jeep at a bazaar in Kabul and injuring two American soldiers and their interpreter. He claims he was punished for refusing to come to his war court arraignment in March.

In order to get him there, his lawyer said, guards dragged him from his cell. In March, he was brought into the court in leg shackles, a war court first.

''I believe that some court should have some supervisory power over the administration of the detention facility. Up until now, it has been an empire unto itself,'' said Jawad's attorney, Air Force Reserves Maj. David J.R. Frakt, who is in civilian life a California law professor.

The crimes and cruelty of Buschco never cease, do they?

Guantánamo (from Miami Herald)

• McCain fights GOP over detainee move
• Judge: US need not say if it tapped lawyers' calls
• Canadian judge: Teen detainee's rights were breached
• Senators: Don't move Guantánamo to Kansas
• New Gitmo prison camps chief shunning detainees
• Canadian facing war crimes trial wants to be a doctor

JANET HAMLIN / COURTESY CBC

In this courtroom sketch, Omar Khadr attends his war-crimes trial in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba Thursday, May 8, 2008.

» More Photos

• Slide show | A Canadian captive at Guantánamo Bay
• Archive | Guantánamo documents
• Complete Guantánamo coverage

Barkley likes odds of Ventura Senate run

The former governor has until July 15 to decide whether to enter the race and will probably wait until then.

By KEVIN DUCHSCHERE, Star Tribune

Last update: June 19, 2008 - 10:30 AM

Dean Barkley, one of former Gov. Jesse Ventura's closest political associates, said Wednesday that he thinks Ventura will enter the U.S. Senate race as a third-party candidate next month.

But Barkley emphasized that no one knows what the former governor will wind up doing.

And he said Ventura probably won't make a decision until right before the deadline for filing for office -- 5 p.m. on July 15.

But Barkley said that recent polls -- which showed Ventura with the support of a quarter of Minnesota voters in a hypothetical run against Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken -- have reinforced their hunch that this could be a good year for a famous third-party candidate with office-holding experience.

In fact, both he and Ventura think the former governor would win, Barkley said.

"I think the public would like an alternative," he said. "The polls just show that [Coleman and Franken] have weaknesses that could be exploited by the right person."

No matter what Ventura does, that person won't be Barkley, who was appointed by Ventura to complete Paul Wellstone's term after the senator's death in 2002. Although he had said he would run if Ventura doesn't, Barkley was recently hired to run Metro Mobility transit and has ruled out joining the race.

As for Ventura, he's struggling between wanting to hang onto his comfortable lifestyle in Minnesota and Mexico, where he's become a surf hound, and his desire to shake up Congress and support U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, Barkley said.

He added that Terry Ventura says she won't stand in her husband's way if he wants to run.

"Half of him wants to [run] and the other half says, 'Don't do it, you idiot,'" Barkley said. "He knows his way of life is going to have to change."

One of the recent polls that showed support for Ventura also found that 60 percent of respondents said he shouldn't run for the Senate. Barkley acknowledged that he has some negatives.

SENATOR NORM COLEMAN a Whistleblower with a mandate who never came Forward!

SENATOR NORM COLEMAN a Whistleblower with a mandate who never came Forward! I, Jack Shepard AWARD TO SENATOR NORM COLEMAN THE NON-WHISTLEBLOWER OF THE YEAR 2006-2007 FOR ALL US GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT AGENCIES. For detailed cases by case in depth unbelievable in dept look there are several very interesting links.NORM COLEMAN -& VISIT WWW.JACKSHEPARDFORSENATE.COM to see how SEN. NORM COLEMAN chair of the Iraqi oversight Committee did not use his powers to be a whistleblower on any contractors who were giving him $100,000+ in donations to his Senate Re-election Committee; which know has over $7,000,000 on hand?

posted by jack4shepard

Justice guilty of political hiring: La Times

A report found young applicants deemed liberal or Democrat were rejected for jobs.

By RICHARD B. SCHMITT, Los Angeles Times

Last update: June 24, 2008 - 10:55 PM

WASHINGTON - Scores of highly credentialed young lawyers and law students were denied interviews for coveted positions at the Justice Department because of an illegal screening process that took political and ideological views and affiliations into account rather than merit, Justice Department investigators concluded in a report released Tuesday.

In 2006, some applicants for sought-after jobs in the department's honors program and summer intern program were rejected because they were members of the American Constitution Society or Planned Parenthood or because they expressed concern about gender discrimination in the military, the report found.

Other students or graduates who were brushed aside included a University of Alabama law graduate, ranked sixth in the class, who had written a paper on the detention of aliens under the USA Patriot Act, a Yale Law School graduate who was fluent in Arabic and a Georgetown law student who had worked for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.

In another case, a Harvard Law student was passed over after criticizing the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

Justice Department officials told investigators the applicants were turned down for reasons of academic performance. But most, if not all, of the applicants had superior records, and those explanations were not deemed credible, according to the report.

Career staff and other senior officials openly complained about bias in the process, but their complaints were ignored, investigators found.

"When it comes to the hiring of nonpartisan career attorneys, our system of justice should not be corrupted by partisan politics," said Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., chairman of the Judiciary Committee. "It appears the politicization at Justice was so pervasive that even interns had to pass a partisan litmus test."

Inspiring essay on TPMuckraker by The Facilitatrix

This appears as Obama and McCain have exposed themselves for the asses that they are ..

An EXCELLENT essay! (Wish I'd written it myself, but I spend my time getting everything on this blog now .. )

The Second Great Depression is already in the USA, there are gobs of things to fix. Impeachment and a WAR CRIMES tribunal are the only answers legally BUT we must stay inspired.

The Bush legacy is much worse than you think

By The Facilitatrix - April 16, 2008, 2:32PM

You know what, folks? The sky is falling.

The Bush administration is merely the culmination of a strategy that's been undermining our free, open, and self-determining society for years, and pushing most of us into a cesspool while a few live in splendor.

All these years of letting the market regulate itself has led us here: an environment so raped and pillaged that to reverse the climate change—which is fast leading from over warming to water shortages to food shortages to famine to wars to death and chaos on a level we need to watch The Road Warrior to picture.

We may not see the worst of it, but our children or grandchildren will, and it ain't gonna be pretty. Only a few will be exempt from the effects.

Welcome to our world

What we have right now are airlines flying with unsafe aircraft, because a politicized FAA didn't want to squelch business growth by making the airlines maintain their fleet properly. We have mine disasters and vaunted "clean coal." We have profiteering in unmonitored student loans. We have an FCC that protects media conglomerates, not the airwaves. We have Bizarro-world taxation and environmental standards. But none of this hurts the few, and much of it benefits them further.
We have an educational system that is the laughingstock of the world's unsympathetic and a tragedy to our friends in the world, friends who remember the shining society the US was building and reaching, with secondary education that prepared children to become functioning adults and higher education available to any who were willing to pay the price in effort and intellectual growth, not devastating, life-long debt. This strengthens those few, turning social and economic gaps into chasms.

We have a "justice" system that slaps the hands of corporate malefactors while it methodically pits race against race, to keep the underclasses struggling just to survive, so they won't have the strength to fight the system that controls injustice. The few nod approvingly.

The few, the arrogant

We have a superclass of the few that has for decades methodically worked toward the massive gap we have between their wealth and the rest of us, based, I can only imagine, on pathological needs for money and power, because they sure as hell can't eat any better now than they did in 1965.

We have a "shadow market" of the few operating free from even minimal regulation and that benefits from the petty greed of players in the stock market, because investors' grandiose schemes for profit and distress at loss are merely tools for the real profit gained by the shadow puppeteers.

We have a society of the rest of us in which those recently disenfranchised by deregulation and free markets are those who in generations past disenfranchised other races and ethnicities. And they're still reeling from the loss, so much so that their bitterness—yes, their bitterness—is aimed at people who had nothing to do with disenfranchising them.

But the superclass has had its minions tell the white former middle class over and over that it's the blacks, the Mexicans, the liberals, the Jews, the terrorists, the gays, the atheists—everyone but those actually responsible for it—who took away their jobs and their way of life.

How'd they do it? And who helped?

The superclass knows that if they tell us up is down and right is wrong long enough and often enough, they'll wear down the weakest of us, the most disillusioned of us, the most fearful of us, and the angriest of us, so we'll lash out at others and each other, rather than at them. We've been turned so topsy-turvy that we focus on what they tell us are threats to our "way of life" and can't see outside of the tunnel they've built to see the builders themselves.

Their minions are the middle managers, the stockbrokers, the investor-players, the lobbyists, and the legislators, who buy into the superclass's vision and do their dirty work for them, dreaming their grand dreams. The minions think that by doing their masters' bidding and playing their game, they'll get a piece of the pie. But even though it's a very, very big pie, only very, very few get to enjoy it.

So, wake up, little minions! Wake up, Condoleezza and Colin and Alberto and Alphonso, and really, Harriet and Karen and Lurita. Because the guys in charge have absolutely no intention of sharing the pie with you. Blacks, Mexicans, and women need not apply to the superclass, but you can work for them. Oh, and Johnny Yoo? Nice work on the memos. We'll call you if we need anything else done. You are not one of them, and you never can or will be. You are the pie makers. You steal from your own to make the pie, but you don't get to take it home.

Bush and Cheney and O'Neill and Rove, along with some select, moving-and-shaking (and correctly born, educated, and baptized) senators (sorry, not you, Joe L.) enjoy the pie, but no congressmen (Really, the grunts? I think not!). And of course, the business moguls who share the beds of of the politicos in the superclass win with them, and they gobble up the pie and get fatter than even Croesus could have imagined.

They're not going to give anything back.

Unless those of us who are on to what the superclass has done to us rise up—and I mean that in its classical, revolutionary sense—nothing will ever get better for anyone but them. And unless we shove the faces of all of those minion-enablers into the reality that they can't eat that pie—which they were never intended to share—they're going to keep on helping those few who have done the world more harm than any war, any despot, any plague, or any disaster.

So anything they tell us? More smoke and mirrors to keep us from screaming out the truth and taking back our education, our health, our utilities, our infrastructure, our transportation, our communications, our media, and anything else that has been deregulated or allowed to be "free marketed" into its current state. And we've got to regulate the hell out of everything, and tax the bastards within an inch of their lives. Then at least we can stop them where they now stand and maybe even get something back.

Who will win?

But you know what? No matter what we do to the superclass—short of incarcerating the lot of them in Pelican Bay, looting their villas, or building some guillotines—they will always have more money than they rest of us can imagine. Just accept that now. It shouldn't stop us from doing what we need to do, though.

We can restore our freedoms. We can stop playing their games, using their oil, swallowing their pabulum, and blaming fellow victims. But we're going to have to fight for it, and we're going to have to convince their minions that facilitating the puppeteers is in no one's interest but the puppeteers themselves.

So take up metaphorical arms and do what we need done to save us all. Winning an election isn't going to make things magically better. But it's a necessary first step toward unraveling our knots and cutting the puppets' strings. Just don't expect the superclass to give anything back without a dirty, ugly, bloody fight.

Again, the torture prosecutor is the first step. And this would lead to IMPEACHMENT !
The WORLD is breathlessly awaiting what US patriot really do - and if you've read the blog you know that Obama is no answer.

The elections WILL be cancelled. And then there is very heavy work to be done and I am doing my part, as I can.

MNN update: at the Canada/US border

AKWESASNE GUARDS ON THE BORDER OF INSANITY: Colonists cross “line” into "terrorism": by Karakwine of Kanehsatake of Haudenosaunee Territory

MNN. June 24, 2008. It looks like the military-industrial-governmental cartel is no longer restricting itself to using words, subterfuge and intimidation in their “war” on Indigenous people of Turtle Island. They are now attempting to eliminate those who stand in their way. Every person who wants freedom should be wary. Beware of the coming attacks on our people.

Dear loyal readers of MNN. As you already know, MNN suffered a blow on Saturday June 14^th. To briefly recap. Kahentinetha Horn and Katenies were brutally attacked and beaten at the Cornwall-New York border that runs through the middle of the Akwesasne Mohawk community. As a result, kahentinetha suffered damage to her heart and is resting quietly. Katenies is in seclusion with her family recuperating from a vicious beating.

We thank you in advance for your continued readership and patience during this time. We at MNN will continue to report lies, thefts, deceptions and brutality directed against our people and expose the colonists as only we know how. We see even more clearly that Prime Minister Harper speaks peace on one hand and metes out violence with the other. This attack on Kahentinetha and Katenies exposes the hypocrisy of Harper’s heinous apology to the Indigenous people last week over the Canadian policy of genocide. Our ancestors were right. He speaks with “a forked tongue”.

That “Drug Store Indian” Phil Fontaine was standing next to his master, the Prime Minister, skinning and grinning for all he was worth. Hey, Phil, was your soul stolen for good at “Camp Auchweitz Indian Residential School”? Haven’t you got your humanity back?

The goons hired by Canada Border Customs are high on muscle and testosterone, low on brains and selected for their sadistic nature. The Canadian “Corp. Gov.” is hell bent on spilling Mohawk blood. Our young people are being harassed daily at this border crossing. Their parents are running around from one jail to another frantically looking for them. This tactic is meant to demoralize our youth and future generations.

The brutal and disrespecpectful conduct at the border is consistent with the recent heightening of OPP threats and the calling in of the Canadian army on Indigenous people. All Canada is stepping up military recruiting. There appears to be a consensus among these violence-based organizations to use indigenous people for target practice. Julian “Little Il Duce” Fantino recently burst into the Six Nations Onondaga longhouse to exercise what he thinks is his imaginary right of dictatorship over us. Kahentinetha was warned by several people that she should not set foot in “their” Ontario. She made a mistake that it was safe for her to go there. These creeps appear to have stepped out of the pages of the Mussolini fascist era to become Harper’s obedient Doberman.

Psychological tests have demonstrated that a “disconnect” tends to take over when you stick a uniform on someone’s back. It brings out a killer instinct. It is dangerous. If they are asked to guard an outhouse, they would do this with all the seriousness befitting a royal body guard. As long as they have their uniform on, the more elaborate, they are ready to take liberties. They think they can get away with anything. “Only taking orders!”

Don’t’ be surprised to hear lies and disinformation directed against MNN. We must be vigilant against the “new normal” fascism. MNN is going to try to address this new paradigm. Our voice will roar back. “We will, we will, resist!” Guaranteed!

Fighting this border issue will cost money. MNN has none. The Canadian state can dip into the pockets of 30 million people and all indigenous resources. It’s an unbalanced fight. We need your help to get counsel that will not be intimidated by this display of power. The establishment is apparently hiring the top law firms in the country to fight the Mohawks. Your financial help is needed.

Karakwine

If you could send donations to the MNN legal defense fund, it would be greatly appreciated: MNN, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0.

Phil Fontaine is a partner in CBSA’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-9 See Apprendix 4 for list of external stakeholders; Chris Kealey, Canada Customs Excise, Immigration Taxation Board, CBSA Media Relations 613-991-5197; Alain Joliceour, President CBSA 613-952-3200, 613-957-0612; General inquiries CBSA-ASFC@canada.gc.ca; National Aboriginal Initiative, Canadian Human Rights Commission 204-983-2189, 1-866772-4880 info.com@chrc-ccdp.ca; Canada Customs Port of Entry, Cornwall Island Ontario; Gaetan Cousineau, Quebec Human Rights, presidence@cdpdj.gc.ca; Akwesasne Mohawk police 613-575-2250 ex 2400; Mohawk Security Louis Mitchell 613-932-5183, 613-575-2340; Lance Markel, District Dir. CBSA 613-930-3234, 613-991-1214; Nurse Rachet at Cornwall Community Hospital 613-938-4240; www.,chrc-ccdp.ca; Brent Lefebvre Investigator for CBSA; Susan St. Clair, Canadian Human Rights Commission, 344 Slater, Ottawa 613-995-1151, 1-888-214-1090, 613-943-5188; National spokesperson CBSA 613-957-6500; Quebec Media Relations CBSA 514-350-6130; Handling arrest Scott Patterson; Chief MCA Nona Benedict 613-575-2250 nbenedict@akwesasne.ca; Minister Stockwell Day, House of Commons, Ottawa K1A 0A6 613-995-1702 day.s@parl.gc.ca 250-770-4480, days1@parl.gc.ca; Dave MacKenzie, Parliamentary Secretary, Public Safety, 613-995-4432;Mackenzie.d@parl.gc.ca; Melissa Leclair Communications Pub. Safety 613-991-2863; OFFICERS: 17012; 16320; 16511; 16121; 16275;

Report: Mohawk grandmothers attacked by Canadian Border Services Agency guardsnooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/06/cbsa-attack.html “Family furious with Customs” Posted by Trevor Pritchard, Cornwall Standard Freeholder - Saturday, June 21, 2008 Family furious with Customs; See MNN Category: “ Border/Jay Treaty “; New MNN Books Available Now! The books below, email us: Mohawk Warriors Three - The Trial of Lasagna, Noriega, 20/20$20.00 usd; The On-Going Confusion between The Great Law and The Handsome Lake Code$ 20.00 usd; The Agonizing Death of "Colonialism" and "Federal Indian Law" in Kaianere'ko:wa/Great Law Territory $20.00 usd; Who's Sorry Now? The good, the bad and the unapologetic Mohawks of Kanehsatake $20.00 usd; Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy Karoniaktajeh $10 usd; Warriors Hand Book Karoniaktajeh $10 usd; Mail checks and money orders to... MNN P.O. Box 991 Kahnawake, QC J0L 1B0; Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePress Store; http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews ;Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates ; http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php ; Sign Women Title Holders petition! ; htp://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois ;Link to MNN Get the code and banners to link to Mohawk Nation News. ; http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?page=promote.html ;Your Support - Make a contribution to our newsgroup. Secure your online transaction with PayPal®. ; http://www.mohawknationnews.com/pg.php?page=donate.html Nia:wen, Kahentinetha Horn Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Speaking & Contemporary Native Issues Workshops Katenies katenies20@yahoo.com Manager ; Stay tuned! www.mohawknationnews.com

recent news on Alzheimer's/dementia

New clue to Alzheimer's found

Wired

2008-06-24

Researchers have uncovered a new clue to the cause of Alzheimer's disease.

The brains of people with the memory-robbing form of dementia are cluttered with a plaque made up of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein. But there long has been a question whether this is a cause of the disease or a side effect. Also involved are tangles of a protein called tau; some scientists suspect this is the cause.

Now, researchers have caused Alzheimer's symptoms in rats by injecting them with one particular form of beta-amyloid. Injections with other forms of beta-amyloid did not cause illness, which may explain why some people have beta-amyloid plaque in their brains but do not show disease symptoms.

The findings by a team led by Dr. Ganesh M. Shankar and Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of Harvard Medical School were reported in Sunday's online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

The researchers used extracts from the brains of people who donated their bodies to medicine.

Forms of soluble beta-amyloid containing different numbers of molecules, as well as insoluble cores of the brain plaque, were injected into the brains of rats. There was no detectable effect from the insoluble plaque or the soluble one-molecule or three-molecule forms, the researchers found.

But the two-molecule form of soluble beta-amyloid produced characteristics of Alzheimer's in the rats, they reported.

Those rats had impaired memory function, especially for newly learned behaviors. Studies were also done on mice and when their brains were inspected, the density brain cells were reduced by 47 percent. The beta-amyloid seemed to affect synapses, the connections between cells that are essential for communication between them.

The research, for the first time, showed the effect of a particular type of beta-amyloid in the brain, said Dr. Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, director of the division of neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the research.

It was surprising that only one of the three types had an effect, she said in a telephone interview.

Morrison-Bogorad said the findings may help explain the discovery of plaque in the brains of people who do not develop dementia. For some time, doctors have wondered why they find some brains in autopsy that are heavily coated with beta-amyloid, but the person did not have Alzheimer's.

The answer may lie in the two types of beta-amyloid that did not cause symptoms.

Now, the question is why one has the damaging effect and not others.

"A lot of work needs to be done," Morrison-Bogorad said. "Nature keeps sending us down paths that look straight at the beginning, but there are a lot of curves before we get to the end."

Dr. Richard J. Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, said that "while more research is needed to replicate and extend these findings, this study has put yet one more piece into place in the puzzle that is Alzheimer's."

In addition to the Institute on Aging, the research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Wellcome Trust, the McKnight and Ellison foundations and the Lefler Small Grant Fund.

Congress to hear testimony on AIDS !!

I have received the meeting time and date. U.S. House Resolution 15090 will be our calling card. Page 129 of this document proves the U.S. Pentagon sought and received $10,000, 000.00 on June 9, 1969, to make a "synthetic biological agent" for which no natural immunity could exist, an agent that will deplete the immune system so as to allow for the onset of infectious disease. This document was previously provided to Willie Blair of your staff.

ANY REVIEW OF THE U.S. SPECIAL VIRUS PROGRAM (1962 - 1978) WILL SOLVE AND END HIV/AIDS. The program's 1971 "research logic" blueprint is absolute evidence of the design, purpose and intent of this federal program.

Equally true is the United States' 1971 confession that "visna virus" (sheep) had not YET been associated with human disease. See page 39, progress report # 8 (1971). However on July 18, 1983, The U.S. AIDS Task Force was informed that "visna" was the etiological agent of HIV/AIDS. So, the question for the Congressman and the United States regarding the laboratory birth of AIDS is: When did visna sheep virus cross species between 1971 and 1983 so as to become the etiological agent of HIV/AIDS. See Science Vol 227, pp. 173 -7, January 1985. See also, The Proceedings of the United States of America, National Academy of Sciences, Vol 83, pp. 4007 - 11, PROC NAS, June 1986, see also, PROC NAS Vol 92, pp. 3283 - 87, April 11, 1995.

The U.S. Special Virus program is the ONLY answer. The 1971 flowchart depicts the development of the "ESP-1 virus. Under electron microscope the esp-1 is "IDENTICAL" to the HIV electron microscope as listed in the 1985 Science paper cited above.

Also true is the fact that a 1971 Science paper of the time details the esp-1 virus made within the U.S. Special Virus program (1962 - 1978), See, "U.S. Special Virus Cancer Program: Trevails of a Biological Moonshot" (google it).

I look forward to meeting you and the Congressman, I hope by then the whole world is watching. We have within our reach a vision of a world once again without HIV/AIDS, we must not fail. Respectfully submitted,

Boyd Ed Graves, J.D.

Director-AIDS CONCERNS

The Common Cause Medical Research Foundation (Ontario, Canada)

370 D. Street

Chula Vista, CA 91910

619-849-9364

ACTIVISM: Anti Star wars defense update

JUNE 22 PHOTOS AND AN EMAIL FROM THE COLONEL

Folks met in Brunswick, Maine on the town green for an hour of sign
holding, writing letters to Condi Rice (who goes to the Czech
Republic on July 10 to sign the Star Wars radar agreement), and we
closed with a circle and everyone shared why they had come. Most
of those in the photo fasted on June 22.

In dozens of cities all over the world the June 22 global day of
fasting brought people out onto the streets in creative displays
of solidarity with the 70% of the people in the Czech Republic who
are working hard to reject U.S. plans to deploy a Star Wars radar
facility in their country.

Thousands of signatures were gathered for the petition at
http://www.nonviolence.cz/ In many places statements were written
on paper plates to Secretary of State Rice and will be sent to her
before her visit to Prague in early July.

You can find many more photos, and reports, at this web site.

At the end of the day I received an email from Col. Robert Suminsby,
Jr. in which he said, "The point I made, and will continue to make,
is that the country is on an unsustainable course. The growth of
entitlement spending, left unchecked, will eventually crowd out all
other parts of the federal budget."

Col. Suminsby worries that people like me are taking a fixed position
of hands off entitlement spending ........"You see, I'm prepared
to make sacrifices to fix national problems. I think others should
expect to make sacrifices as well," he said.

I want to assure the Colonel that I too am ready to see "sacrifices"
made for the good of the nation. I'd like to see the $14 billion
of month we are wasting in Iraq and Afghanistan brought home to
build rail systems, solar, and windmills. I'd like to not see us
attack Iran. I'd like to see an end to tax cuts for the rich and
the corporations. I want an end to the NSA's "warrantless wiretapping"
of American citizens and people all over the world.

I'd like to see at least a 50% cut in military spending for starters.
(Just yesterday an article was sent around about the increases in
funding for the Pentagon's high-tech black "secret" budget. I'd
like to see the black budget shut down.) I'd like to see the 750
plus U.S. military bases around the world shut down.

Living at a time where we face increasing corporate media consolidation
many of us have to rely on email, websites, and blogs to get our
messages out to the general public. Newspapers are now in dire
financial straits, in part, because people rely on the Internet as
their primary source of information.

Col. Suminsby concluded his email to me by saying, "Therebs precious
little difference between you and any number of right-wing blowhards
on talk radiob&on either end of the ideological spectrum, if you
insist on creating your own version of someonebs position and then
attacking it, youbll succeed only in making yourself feel good, and
convincing those who already agreed with you."

I would thank Col. Suminsby for sending me the email. He should
know that increasing majorities of the people in the U.S. and around
the world are now quite uncomfortable with the escalating U.S.
military empire. There is a growing backlash against U.S. militarism
both here at home and abroad.

I noticed that the Colonel is soon to be transferred to Germany. I
lived there in the mid-1960's when my Air Force father was stationed
in Wiesbaden. One day our middle school class was taken to the Rhine
River to view the ruins of a castle. The tourist guide informed us
that the stone slab we were standing on had once been the barracks
of Roman soldiers. I remember wondering to myself, "What were those
soldiers doing so far from home?" Even at that young age I intuitively
understood that empires are a contradiction and in time can not
stand. They are destined to fall.

In our case the U.S. empire is now collapsing. One clear sign is
that in the U.S. there is growing competition for the federal tax
dollar. Will we fund the Pentagon or social progress? We can't serve
two masters.

It appears that the debate will go on.

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear
Power in Space PO Box 652 Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org global...@mindspring.com
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)

Important FLU and atypical antipsychotic information

Two things to keep your elderly parents away from: Being drugged at their elderly facility and the flu shot that has high levels of mercury, causes dementia and actually does not work which in some facilities are required.
If so, demand the flu shot without Thimerosal but not the live virus vaccine called "Flu mist". Eileen

See 5 minute University of Calgary video on our site: www.ProgressiveConvergence.com (how mercury degenerates the brain neurons)

and check out the 2500 suicide and homicide stories: http://www.ssristories.com/index.php

Letters to the editor: letters@nytimes.com

New York Times

Doctors Say Medication Is Overused in Dementia

By LAURIE TARKAN

June 24, 2008

Ramona Lamascola with her mother, Theresa Lamascola.

Ramona Lamascola thought she was losing her 88-year-old mother to dementia. Instead, she was losing her to overmedication.

Last fall her mother, Theresa Lamascola, of the Bronx, suffering from anxiety and confusion, was put on the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. When she had trouble walking, her daughter took her to another doctor — the younger Ms. Lamascola's own physician — who found that she had unrecognized hypothyroidism, a disorder that can contribute to dementia.

Mrs. Lamascola no longer takes antipsychotics.

Theresa Lamascola was moved to a nursing home to get these problems under control. But things only got worse. "My mother was screaming and out of it, drooling on herself and twitching," said Ms. Lamascola, a pediatric nurse. The psychiatrist in the nursing home stopped the Risperdal, which can cause twitching and vocal tics, and prescribed a sedative and two other antipsychotics.

"I knew the drugs were doing this to her," her daughter said. "I told him to stop the medications and stay away from Mom."

Not until yet another doctor took Mrs. Lamascola off the drugs did she begin to improve.

The use of antipsychotic drugs to tamp down the agitation, combative behavior and outbursts of dementia patients has soared, especially in the elderly. Sales of newer antipsychotics like Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa totaled $13.1 billion in 2007, up from $4 billion in 2000, according to IMS Health, a health care information company.

Part of this increase can be traced to prescriptions in nursing homes. Researchers estimate that about a third of all nursing home patients have been given antipsychotic drugs.

The increases continue despite a drumbeat of bad publicity. A 2006 study of Alzheimer's patients found that for most patients, antipsychotics provided no significant improvement over placebos in treating aggression and delusions.

In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration ordered that the newer drugs carry a "black box" label warning of an increased risk of death. Last week, the F.D.A. required a similar warning on the labels of older antipsychotics.

The agency has not approved marketing of these drugs for older people with dementia, but they are commonly prescribed to these patients "off label." Several states are suing the top sellers of antipsychotics on charges of false and misleading marketing.

Ambre Morley, a spokeswoman for Janssen, the division of Johnson & Johnson that manufactures Risperdal, would not comment on the suits, but said: "As with any medication, the prescribing of a medication is up to a physician. We only promote our products for F.D.A.-approved indications."

Nevertheless, many doctors say misuse of the drugs is widespread. "These antipsychotics can be overused and abused," said Dr. Johnny Matson, a professor of psychology at Louisiana State University. "And there's a lot of abuse going on in a lot of these places."

Dr. William D. Smucker, a member of the American Medical Directors Association, a group of health professionals who work in nursing homes, agreed. Though the group encourages doctors to conduct a thorough assessment and prescribe antipsychotics only as a last resort, he said, "Many physicians are absent without leave in the nursing home and don't take an active role in the assessment of the patient."

Some nursing homes are trying a different approach, so-called environmental intervention. The strategies include reducing boredom, providing intellectual and physical stimulation, exercise, calming music, bringing in pets for therapy and improving how the staff approaches and talks to dementia patients.

At the Margaret Teitz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Queens, social workers do life reviews of patients to understand their interests, lifestyle and former occupations.

"I had a patient who used to be in fashion," said Nancy Goldwasser, the director of social services. "So we got her fabric samples. And she'd sit and look through the books, touch the fabric, and it would calm her."

But such approaches are time consuming, they do not help all patients, they can be prohibitively expensive and they will be more difficult to provide as Alzheimer's continues to increase.

"Our health care system isn't set up to address the mental, emotional and behavioral problems of the elderly," said Dr. Gary S. Moak, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.

Nursing homes are short staffed, and insurers do not generally pay for the attentive medical care and hands-on psychosocial therapy that advocates recommend. It is much easier to use sedatives and antipsychotics, despite their side effects.

The first generation of antipsychotics, like Haldol, carry a significant risk of repetitive movement disorders and sedation. Second-generation antipsychotics, also called atypicals, are more commonly prescribed because the risk of movement disorders is lower. But they, too, can cause sedation, and they contribute to weight gain and diabetes.

Used correctly, the drugs do have a role in treating some seriously demented patients, who may be incapacitated by paranoia or are self-destructive or violent. Taking the edge off the behavior can keep them safe and living at home, rather than in a nursing home.

If patients are prescribed an antipsychotic, it should be a very low dose for the shortest period necessary, said Dr. Dillip V. Jeste, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego.

It may take a few weeks or months to control behavior. In many cases, the patient can then be weaned off of the drugs or kept at a very low dose.

Some experts say another group of medications — antidementia drugs like Aricept, Exalon and Menamda — are underused. Research shows that 10 to 20 percent of Alzheimer's patients had noticeable positive responses to the drugs, and 40 percent more showed some cognitive improvement, even if it was not noticeable to an observer.

"Sometimes, it's enough to take the edge off the behavioral problems, so the family and patient can live with it and you don't expose people to much risk," said Dr. Gary J. Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

Other experts cite a lack of research backing these drugs for behavioral problems.

If patients begin showing behavioral symptoms of dementia, doctors said, they should have complete medical and psychiatric workups first, especially if symptoms develop suddenly.

"Just because someone is 95 does not mean one should not do a workup, especially if she's been healthy," Dr. Kennedy said.

Common causes of the symptoms include ministrokes, reparable brain hemorrhage from a mild bump on the head, hypothyroidism, dehydration, malnourishment, depression and sleep disorders.

Some doctors point out that simply paying attention to a nursing home patient can ease dementia symptoms. They note that in randomized trials of antipsychotic drugs for dementia, 30 to 60 percent of patients in the placebo groups improved.

"That's mind boggling," Dr. Jeste said. "These severely demented patients are not responding to the power of suggestion. They're responding to the attention they get when they participate in a clinical trial.

"They receive both T.L.C. and good general medical and humane care, which they did not receive until now. That's a sad commentary on the way we treat dementia patients."

To family members looking at a nursing home for an aging parent, experts recommend seeking out homes with low staff turnover, a high ratio of staff members to patients, and programs with psychosocial components.

The Medicare Web site has basic information on individual homes at www.medicare.gov/NHcompare. The National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, at www.nccnhr.org, offers a consumer guide to choosing a nursing home.

If medications are necessary, a family member should communicate with the prescribing doctor, learn the goal of each medication and be involved in making the decision.

Dr. Moak, of the psychiatry association, emphasized seeking out the doctor. Family members, he said, "often speak through the nursing staff, and that's a huge mistake."

Family members who are not convinced that a relative is receiving the best care should get a second opinion, as Ramona Lamascola did.

The physician she consulted, Dr. Kennedy of Montefiore, stopped her mother's antipsychotics and sedatives and prescribed Aricept.

"It's not clear whether it was getting her hypothyroid and other medical issues finally under control or getting rid of the offending medications," he said. "But she had a miraculous turnaround."

Theresa Lamascola still has dementia, but she went from confinement in a wheelchair — unable to sit still and screaming out in fear — to being able to walk with help, sit peacefully, have some memory and ability to communicate, understand subtleties of conversations and even make jokes.

Or, as her daughter put it, "I got my mother back."

Link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

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27,346 Signatures Against TeenScreen. Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY