How To Stop Foreclosure 

By Janet Wickell

Steps You Can Take to Avoid Foreclosure and Save Your Home
A loss of a job, medical expenses and other life-altering occurrences can happen to anyone, causing us to fall behind in our loan payments. If we neglect paying our credit cards it hurts our credit rating, but if we stop paying our home loan the situation is even worse, because the lender can foreclose, taking ownership the home.

Don't Be Embarassed
You must put your pride on hold if you're truly serious about stopping the foreclosure process. Lenders do not want to foreclose, and will usually work with you to get you back on track.

Rule #1: Contact your lender as soon as you know your payments will be late.

Rule #2: Never ignore the lender's letters or phone calls. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away.

Rule #3: Never assume your situation is hopeless.


Solutions for Temporary Problems
Reinstatement
Reinstatement might be possible when you are behind in your payments but can promise a lump sum to bring payments current by a specific date.

Forbearance
In forbearance, you are allowed to delay payments for a short period, with the understanding that another option will be used afterwards to bring the account current. Lenders sometimes combine Forbearance with Reinstatement if you know you'll have the funds to bring your account current by a specific date.

A Repayment Plan
If your account is past due, but you can now make payments, the lender might agree to let you catch up by adding a portion of the past due amount to a certain number of monthly payments until your account is current.

Solutions for Longer-Term Problems
Mortgage Modification
If you can make your regular payment now, but cannot catch-up the past due amount, the lender might agree to modify your mortgage. One solution is to add the past due amount into your existing loan, financing it over a long term.

Modification might also be possible if you no longer have the ability to make payments at the former level. The lender can modify your mortgage to extend the length of your loan (or take other steps to reduce your payments).

Selling Your Home
If catching up is not a possibility, the lender might agree to put foreclosure on hold to give you some time to attempt to sell your home.

Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure
When the lender allows you to give-back your property--and forgives the debt. It does have a negative impact on your credit record, but not as much as a foreclosure.

The lender might require that you attempt to sell the house for a specific time period before agreeing to this option, and it might not be possible if there are other liens against the home.

For FHA Loans
The lender might be able to help you receive a one-time payment from the FHA Insurance fund. Your loan must be at least 4 months but no more than 12 months past due and you must show you are able to begin making full mortgage payments.

• You must sign a promissory note which allows HUD to place a lien on your property for the amount received from the fund.
• The note is interest free, but must eventually be repaid.
• The note becomes due when you pay off the loan or when you sell the property.
• For VA Loans
• VA Regional Loan Centers offer financial counseling that's designed to help you avoid foreclosure. Call 1-800-827-1000 and ask for the phone number of the Loan Service Representative in your area.

Contact a HUD-Approved Counselor
If you don't want to talk with your lender first, contact a HUD-approved counseling agency. A counselor can help you determine which options might be available to you and negotiate with your lender to work out a repayment program. You can find an approved agency on the Web.

Put the Process in Motion
Your lender won't automatically put you into a program to bring your loan up-to-date. You must put the plan into motion and provide the lender with the documentation they require to analyze your financial situation.

• Although lenders do not want to foreclose if it can be avoided, they do want to make sure you can follow-through on any promises you make to bring your account current.
• Be prepared to share all details about your financial situation with your lender.
• An explanation of your current financial circumstances.
• Details about your current income.
• A list of your household expenses.
• The lender will review and analyze your situation before offering a solution to bring your loan up-to-date.

Repairing Your Credit
If your home loan is past due, your other obligations probably are too. A nonprofit credit counseling agency might be able to help you work with your creditors to reduce your monthly payments by lowering interest rates or extending repayment periods.

The key word here is nonprofit. Steer clear of companies that promise you quick, easy results for all of your credit problems--if you pay them a large fee. You know better--that's not how it works in the real world. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling is a good place to start.

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

PET FOOD RECALL UPDATE:

 WHAT EVERY PET PARENT SHOULD KNOW

As the pet food recall widened last week to include certain products containing rice protein concentrate, the ASPCA has issued new recommendations for pet parents looking for advice on what to feed their pets. “As new products are recalled, there is obviously great confusion in the public space about what is and is not safe to feed your pet,” says the ASPCA’s Dr. Louise Murray, Director of Medicine, Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital. “We’ve prepared some guidelines that we hope will be helpful to pet parents and veterinarians alike.”

ASPCA experts suggest the following:

- Based on information made public by the FDA last week, the ASPCA recommends that you should not feed your pet any foods containing wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate.

- Given that the source of contamination has thus far been identified as coming from outside the U.S., you may wish to check with your pet food manufacturer as to the country of origin of any protein concentrate used in its products.

- If you suspect at any time that your pet has ingested food that may be contaminated, call your veterinarian immediately.

- Stay alert for early signs of a problem that may be recall-related, such as excessive thirst, decreased appetite or vomiting.

- If you think your pet is critically ill and you cannot reach your regular veterinarian, please call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435.

Please check the ASPCA Pet Food Recall Resource Center regularly for additional information, including updates about foods that were added to the list of recalled products yesterday.

Truth Revisited:

  A Letter to our Congress

By Monica Benderman

“I am writing to you because you have been elected to serve the people. I am one of those people; my family is one family in America . We are just a family, we care about each other, we work hard and we believe in good things. We have a modest income, not much, but enough to give us what we need. Like most American families, we struggle with the way things are these days. We try to justify that our votes have mattered, our voices are heard, our opinions count, all the while watching decisions being made, unable to recognize the “voice of the people” in the final outcome.

I have worked for years serving those whom I felt called to serve, our elderly. I have fought hard for them, to ensure that they receive the respect they deserve, not only from family, but from community as well.  But now, I have left my fight for the elderly, to do what I can to help in a more significant effort.

My husband works with an equal amount of passion.  Everything that he has been asked to do by his employer, he has done. Everywhere he has had to go, he has gone with the trust that the words of his employer are honest, and committed to his needs and the needs of his fellow workers. Lies. My husband has had faith in an employer who cares more about the American lifestyle than its people. My husband is an American Soldier. My husband deserves so much more than what he has been given in return by his country. I deserve more, my children do. The families of all the soldiers who have VOLUNTEERED to serve and now are asked to fight in a war that is not about defending this country deserve more. This country has disrespected them at every turn. This country has and is failing them. It is failing all who have given with faith, who have fought for the right thing, who have been led in their commitment with the false promises and empty words of our leadership. This is the fight my husband and I now take on. 

Our soldiers are putting their lives on the line. Our VOLUNTEER army is sacrificing its integrity to fight for a cause that has lost its meaning, in a country that did nothing to America before we chose to invade it and occupy it in the name of democracy. As they serve in the most dangerous situations, we hear how they are supported, how our government fights to give them everything they need. We see no pictures of the sacrifice. That is hidden, and our media is ordered not to show it. We see only words and videos of politicians speaking boldly about supporting our military, and honoring their service with all the best equipment, supplies, and motivation. We see nothing of the loss, the destruction: It is kept from us.

The story of this war is no different at any level. In the grand design, it was destined to fail before the invasion happened. The government of America is failing to support the service of our military men and women, and it is denying the sacrifice of those same soldiers and their families in the manner in which it leads the American people. When the American people are shown the truth of the sacrifice our soldiers make, when they are told the truth of the manner in which our government fails to support those soldiers, and their families, when they see the destruction that this war has actually caused, in vivid Technicolor reality, then, perhaps the war will be called to a close, our soldiers brought home where they belong, and Americans will come together in strength against this ever happening again. The discipline of our leadership is a farce, the support of our leadership is a farce, and the truth needs to be shown to everyone who can make a difference.

The illusion is that the war is going well. The illusion is that our soldiers are strongly motivated and emotionally prepared for what they have volunteered to face. The illusion is that we are actually giving the Iraqis their freedom. The illusion is that we in America have that freedom to give. The illusion is that we are taking care of those who are making the greatest sacrifice. The illusion is that our government cares about any of the humanity involved in this war. The illusion is that this war is right. The truth is different:  When the passion and commitment of our government equals the salary they have voted for themselves, when the campaign promises are no longer forgotten after the elections, when I can look a senator in the eye, or a president, or a secretary of defense, and know that he will remember words he spoke to me in the truth of his actions, THEN AND ONLY THEN, will our government begin to come close to deserving what all of our soldiers and their families have sacrificed in the name of freedom for America. Then the illusion may begin to fade and truth become strong. The war is wrong. Our soldiers are not receiving the support they and their families need. There is incredible waste in the military process, beginning with lives, and ending with honor.

We, as Americans, cannot give the Iraqis their freedom. Freedom is earned, and it is the Iraqis who will have to do the fighting, if it is truly freedom that they want. Until America leaves Iraq to the Iraqis, and brings its soldiers home, freedom cannot begin to materialize for the Iraqi people. Soldiers are dying, civilians are dying, and America is the perpetrator. The only support that we should be giving our soldiers now is in bringing them all home, where they can defend what is their duty to defend... their families, their country, and their honor. Someone has to be strong enough to stand against the illusion and tell the truth. And Americans have to be strong enough to bear witness to what they are told.”

Monica Benderman, “An Open Letter to Our Leaders”

( November, 2004)

In December 2004, my husband, Sgt. Kevin Benderman, submitted a Conscientious Objector application to his commander.  He could no longer, in good conscience, serve in a war he knew to be unjust, immoral and with so many misrepresentations of the truth.  He did it knowing the illusion under which he had already served one combat tour in Iraq .  He did it knowing his time in Iraq gave him the firsthand experiences he needed to see through the manipulative actions of our administration; necessary deceit to put the lives of our soldiers on the frontlines for a war of choice Americans and soldiers alike would not otherwise accept. 

Can you see now what you have allowed to happen in our name?

It is the responsibility of Congress, on behalf of the people, to ensure that the policies our soldiers are sent to defend are policies worth giving their lives for. 

It is the responsibility of Congress, on behalf of the people, to ensure that the support given to our soldiers and their families is real, meaningful and of the highest standard; worthy of the sacrifice they make for us all. 

It is the responsibility of Congress, on behalf of the people, to ensure that the people know the true manner of the actions taken in their name.

My husband spent over one year in prison, losing all pay and benefits, as a result of his stand for truth in support of the soldiers and veterans who serve.  The Army did not want his voice to be heard by the American people.  They have heard anyway, more from his prison cell than we still have heard from the Congress charged with doing the will of the people according to the standards set forth in our Constitution.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot take the time to sit with her colleagues and hear the truth of Iraq from the commander of our military when nothing should be more important.

Our presidential leadership believes politics to be more important than the honest administration of the laws they took an oath to uphold. 

It is a matter of Right – and being strong enough to say “NO MORE” to the wrong.

Monica is the wife of Sgt. Kevin Benderman, a ten-year Army veteran who served a combat tour in Iraq and a year in prison for his public protest of war and the destruction it causes to civilians and to American military personnel. Please visit their website, www.BendermanDefense.org to learn more. Monica and Kevin may be reached at mdawnb@coastalnow.net

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

BEIJING - China on Monday gave American regulators permission to enter the country to investigate whether Chinese suppliers exported contaminated pet food ingredients to the United States earlier this year, leading to one of the largest pet food recalls in American history.

Representatives of the United States Food and Drug Administration had been blocked from entering China, despite growing evidence that the tainted pet food that killed at least 16 cats and dogs and sickened thousands of other animals in the United States originated with Chinese exporters of wheat gluten and other animal feed ingredients.

The FDA confirmed Monday that it has now opened a criminal investigation into the pet food scandal, but the agency did not name the target or say whether any American companies may have intentionally laced animal feed with banned ingredients. On Tuesday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is scheduled to hold hearings on how to secure the safety of the country's food supply.

Last Thursday, the FDA expanded its already large pet food recall after it found more evidence that an industrial chemical called melamine had contaminated the supplies of additional pet food makers, including Royal Canin US and C. J. Foods.

The agency, which has already recalled more than 60 million packages of pet food, is also investigating imports of rice protein from China.

Regulators in California said this week that they had found melamine in rice protein animal feed that was fed to livestock, and the fear is that the chemical could have entered the human food supply chain through hogs.

Laboratory testing in California had detected melamine in urine from hogs at the American Hog Farm in Ceres, California. California regulators have alerted anyone who purchased pork from American Hog Farm from April 3 to April 18 to be cautious.

In its news release over the weekend, the FDA also identified a second Chinese company that had exported animal feed tainted with melamine to American pet food and animal feed suppliers.

Reached by telephone Monday in China, the company, Binzhou Futian Biological Technology, declined to comment. Earlier this month, regulators said another Chinese company, the Anying Biological Technology Development Company in Xuzhou, had sold wheat gluten contaminated with melamine to suppliers of American pet food.

China's State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for overall food safety issues here, declined to respond to questions sent to the agency Monday.

American regulators now believe the Chinese companies may have intentionally added melamine to their feed ingredients to artificially bolster the protein count in those supplies in order to meet requirements.

A Chinese expert here said Monday that it was possible melamine could have been used to bolster protein counts.

"If the melamine level is high, it must have been added intentionally." Liu Laiting, a professor of animal sciences at the Henan University of Technology. "The amine in melamine can boost the protein level in tests, because it has chemical element N. It's also likely to increase the adhesiveness of the gluten." Liu added that melamine was hard to detect in ordinary tests.

Regulators have not made a definitive link between melamine and the deaths of animals that consumed it. But melamine is not approved for use in animal or human foods and therefore any use of it would be illegal.

The pet food scandal could seriously harm United States-China trade relations if it was determined that Chinese companies had intentionally altered food ingredients. And even if the contamination was unintentional, the scandal could cast a pall over imports of food or feed ingredients from China, where food safety measures are widely believed to be lax.

The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show.

Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.

Congressional critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply.

FDA officials conceded that the agency's system needs to be overhauled to meet today's demands, but contended that the agency could not have done anything to prevent either contamination episode.

Last week, the FDA notified California state health officials that hogs on a farm in the state had likely eaten feed laced with melamine, an industrial chemical blamed for the deaths of dozens of pets in recent weeks. Officials are trying to determine whether the chemical's presence in the hogs represents a threat to humans.

Pork from animals raised on the farm has been recalled. The FDA has said its inspectors probably would not have found the contaminated food before problems arose. The tainted additive caused a recall of more than 100 different brands of pet food.

The outbreaks point to a need to change the way the agency does business, said Robert E. Brackett, director of the FDA's food-safety arm, which is responsible for safeguarding 80 percent of the nation's food supply.

"We have 60,000 to 80,000 facilities that we're responsible for in any given year," Brackett said. Explosive growth in the number of processors and the amount of imported foods means that manufacturers "have to build safety into their products rather than us chasing after them," Brackett said. "We have to get out of the 1950s paradigm."

Tomorrow, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing on the unprecedented spate of recalls.

"This administration does not like regulation, this administration does not like spending money, and it has a hostility toward government. The poisonous result is that a program like the FDA is going to suffer at every turn of the road," said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the full House committee. Dingell is considering introducing legislation to boost the agency's accountability, regulatory authority and budget.

In the peanut butter case, an agency report shows that FDA inspectors checked into complaints about salmonella contamination in a ConAgra Foods factory in Georgia in 2005. But when company managers refused to provide documents the inspectors requested, the inspectors left and did not follow up.

A salmonella outbreak that began last August and was traced to the plant's Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter brands sickened more than 400 people in 44 states. The likely cause, ConAgra said, was moisture from a roof leak and a malfunctioning sprinkler system that activated dormant salmonella. The plant has since been closed.

The 2005 report shows that FDA inspectors were looking into "an alleged episode of positive findings of salmonella in peanut butter in October of 2004 that was related to new equipment and that the firm didn't react to, . . . insects in some equipment, water leaking onto product, and inability to track some product."

During the inspection, the report says, ConAgra admitted it had destroyed some product in October 2004 but would not say why.

"They asked for some of our documentation and we made the request to them that they put it in writing due to concerns about proprietary information," ConAgra spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said last week. "We did not receive a written request, . . . they filed the report and that was that."

Until February of this year. That's when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the FDA of a spike in salmonella cases in states near the ConAgra plant. The agencies contacted the company, which initiated a recall and shut the plant for upgrades.

Brackett said that if the FDA inspector had seen anything truly dangerous the agency would have taken further action. But, he said, the agency cannot force a disclosure, a recall or a plant closure except in extreme circumstances, such as finding a hazardous batch of product.

The problem in 2005, he added, "doesn't necessarily connect to the salmonella outbreak right now. It's not unusual to have it in raw agricultural commodities."

The FDA has known even longer about illnesses among people who ate spinach and other greens from California's Salinas Valley, the source of outbreaks over the past six months that have killed three people and sickened more than 200 in 26 states. The subsequent recall was the largest ever for leafy vegetables.

In a letter sent to California growers in late 2005, Brackett wrote, "FDA is aware of 18 outbreaks of foodborne illness since 1995 caused by [E. coli bacteria] for which fresh or fresh-cut lettuce was implicated. . . . In one additional case, fresh-cut spinach was implicated. These 19 outbreaks account for approximately 409 reported cases of illness and two deaths."

"We know that there are still problems out in those fields," Brackett said in an interview last week. "We knew there had been a problem, but we never and probably still could not pinpoint where the problem was. We could have that capability, but not at this point."

According to Caroline Smith DeWaal, who heads the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer-advocacy group, "When budgets are tight . . . the food program at FDA gets hit the hardest."

In next year's budget, passed amid discovery of contamination problems in spinach, tomatoes and lettuce, Congress has voted the FDA a $10 million increase to improve food safety, DeWaal said. The Agriculture Department, which monitors meat, poultry and eggs and keeps inspectors in every processing plant, got an increase 10 times that amount to help pay for its inspection programs. The FDA visits problem food plants about once a year and the rest far less frequently, Brackett said.

William Hubbard, who retired as associate commissioner of the FDA in 2005 and founded the advocacy group Coalition for a Stronger FDA, said that when he joined the agency in the 1970s, its food safety arm claimed half its budget and personnel.

"Now it's about a quarter . . . at a time in which the problems have grown, the size of the industry has grown and imports of food have skyrocketed," Hubbard said.

© 2007 The Washington Post Company

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

Is China Intentionally trying to poison our pets?  

Take a look at what alleged tainted food the United States sent to China, and they rejected and sent back to the United States as "contaminated" food as follows:

100 tons of American milk powder returned

August 24, 2006

Quality supervisors have returned more than 100 tons of American milk powder after it was found to contain potentially dangerous levels of nitrate.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine yesterday said 102 tons of milk powder had been returned to the United States .

The administration said the powder, worth US$200,000, had not entered the Chinese market.

Following the discovery of excess levels of nitrate in the milk powder, the administration issued a warning, urging local quality inspection bodies to step up inspections of imported milk powder to ensure consumer safety.

Experts warned excessive consumption of nitrite-tainted foods can cause poisoning and may even result in death.

The Beijing Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau examined three batches of the milk powder, produced by US company West Farm Inc, on June 7 and June 14. The three batches registered nitrite levels of 2.7mg/kg, 2.8 mg/kg and 4.4mg/kg.

China 's national safety limit for nitrates in food stuffs is 2 mg/kg.

Li Yuanping, the administration's food safety director, said the milk powder was imported as a raw material for food production.

In 2004, at least 13 babies died of malnutrition and nearly 200 fell ill after they were fed with a fake milk power made in East China's Anhui Province .

China has been struggling to control a rise in the number of food-related health scares in recent years.

Source: China Daily

Additionally, The latest news on the tainted pet food issue warns that the poisonous tainting may have been intentional. Not only that! But it may be working it’s way into human food supply!

In California , state agriculture officials placed a hog farm under quarantine after melamine (the pet food poison) was found in pig urine there. Additional testing was under way to determine whether the chemical was present in the meat produced by American Hog Farm in Ceres since April 3, the state Department of Food and Agriculture said.

It would appear that we are to expect further pet food recalls

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

Capuano and Kucinich Come Clean About the Lobby

Why is the Peace Movement Silent About AIPAC?

By John Walsh

"AIPAC!" was the forceful one-word answer of Congressman Michael Capuano when we asked him, "Why was the Iran clause forbidding war on Iran without Congressional approval taken out of the recent supplemental for the Iraq war funding?" I nearly fell out of my chair at his reply - not because this was news but because of who had just said it. Capuano is a close ally of Nancy Pelosi, her fixer and enforcer. That was last Friday morning when a small delegation from Cambridge and Somerville, MA, were visiting the Congressman, known for his bluntness, as part of the nationwide UFPJ (United For Peace and Justice) home lobbying effort during the Congressional recess.

Later that day, Dennis Kucinich made an appearance at Harvard, where he was asked the same question, the reason for removing the Iran provision. "AIPAC," I volunteered out loud. Kucinich looked my way and said, "Exactly." Again my chair almost failed to contain me.

A few weeks earlier we had gone to the offices of Senators Kennedy and then Kerry to discuss the war. (My intention was to call their attention to www.FilibusterForPeace.org to which the Kennedy aide was sympathetic and the Kerry aide predictably hostile.) I raised the question of AIPAC directly with Kerry's aide, inquiring about its hawkish influence on Kerry and other Senators. Suddenly the aide was quite engaged. Leaning forward, he said: "That will never be discussed publicly. That will never be discussed publicly." Clearly even Kerry's office is unhappy with the pressure that comes from AIPAC.

It is widely acknowledged that the reps and senators are ticked at AIPAC, and their hostility seems to be growing these days. With upwards of 60% of their campaign contributions coming directly or indirectly from the Israel Lobby, the Democratic congressmen are not free to respond to their antiwar base. This opens them to an antiwar electoral challenge on the Left or Right from forces not subservient to AIPAC. And that could cost them their next election, a little thing which has them very worked up. Capuano's cry of "AIPAC" was no simple outburst of candor but a cri de coeur for his career.

So here we have even Congressmen and Senator's aides complaining publicly about AIPAC. AIPAC is being outed all over the mainstream media, largely thanks to the door opening work of Mearsheimer and Walt. AIPAC is skewered routinely by Justin Raimondo on Antiwar.com and by Alex Cockburn and many others here on CounterPunch. But there remains no anti-AIPAC campaign within the mainstream antiwar organizations, like UFPJ or Peace Action. (Even one supposed Congressional ally of the peace movement was announced as a celebrity guest at the recent colossal AIPAC meeting in Washington, where half the Congress shows up and Dick Cheney is a regular speaker. What gives?)

I have been told by leaders of the peace movement that AIPAC is a distraction from the main thrust of the antiwar movement. And so we should not engage it; AIPAC is to be immune. But with all due respect to the sentiments of that leadership, immunity for AIPAC is a prescription for disaster. To use a military analogy, which I do not especially like, suppose that we were trying to take a hill in Germany in 1944. And suppose we said that we would not attack one pillbox, which kept devastating our forces. Leave just that one pillbox alone! The result would be devastating; we would be cut down with every succeeding attempt at advance. So it is with AIPAC which campaigns relentlessly for war on Iraq, war on Iran, war on Syria, war on Lebanon and the slow genocide of the Palestinian people. AIPAC constantly puts the peace movement on the defensive while it is free to be on the offensive all the time.

AIPAC is not just an issue for Jewish Americans or the Jewish wing of the peace movement like Jewish Voice for Peace; it is a major force, although not the only one, driving the U.S. to wars in the Middle East. AIPAC is no less a force for war than is the Republican National Committee. In fact it is worse, because it sinks its teeth into the foreign policy establishment of both parties, perhaps the Dems more so than the Republicans. If the peace movement is to be worth its salt, then it must take action against AIPAC. (It is marathon season here in Boston and my friend, Israeli expatriate Joshua Ashenberg, tells me that the foregoing thought harbors a logical error. As he says: "A 'movement' that does not work against AIPAC is NOT a peace movement by definition. It will not help if I call myself a marathon runner, while I never ran a marathon.")

In the Boston area, AIPAC appears to be especially powerful, and so we have a special responsibility to take it on. At the recent AIPAC conference in Washington, the delegates from Boston/New England were the most hawkish toward Iran. Just before the last election a notorious ad in the Boston Globe, cheering on the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, was engineered by the Jewish Community Relations Council, an arm of AIPAC here. Every major political figure in MA signed the ad, including our "liberal" governor, Deval Patrick, and supposed peacenik Congressman Jim McGovern. Only Conressmen Capuano and Delahunt withheld their signatures. In addition AIPAC appears to raise a lot of money in our neck of the woods.

So I have a modest suggestion. On Sunday, April 29, beginning at 6 pm, AIPAC has its annual fundraising dinner at the Westin Hotel in Copley Square in Boston. (Last year a good table for 10 went for a modest $10,000.) Show up at 5 pm to protest the machinations of AIPAC. Which peace organizations in our area will be there? Which ones will promote the rally? And which will maintain their silence?

 * American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar@gmail.com.

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

THE BLACKSBURG MASSACRE

His creative writing raised alarm, he was on medication and he left a note

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was identified today as an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service.
 
News reports also said that he may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against "rich kids,'' "debauchery'' and "deceitful charlatans'' on campus.

Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior, arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., officials said. He was living on campus in a different dorm from the one where Monday's bloodbath began.

Police and university officials offered no clues as to exactly what set him off on the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him,'' school spokesman Larry Hincker said.

Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled.''

"There was some concern about him,'' Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this.''

She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.

The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women.

ABC, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the note, several pages long, explains Cho's actions and says, "You caused me to do this.''

Investigators believe Cho at some point had been taking medication for depression, the Tribune reported.

The rampage consisted of two attacks, more than two hours apart -- first at a dormitory, where two people were killed, then inside a classroom building, where 31 people, including Cho, died after being locked inside, Virginia State Police said. Cho committed suicide; two guns were found in the classroom building.

One law enforcement official said Cho's backpack contained a receipt for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. Cho held a green card, meaning he was a legal, permanent resident, federal officials said. That meant he was eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony.

Investigators stopped short of saying Cho carried out both attacks. But ballistics tests show one gun was used in both, Virginia State Police said.

And two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced, said Cho's fingerprints were found on both guns. The serial numbers on the two weapons had been filed off, the officials said.

Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said it was reasonable to assume that Cho was the shooter in both attacks but that the link was not yet definitive. "There's no evidence of any accomplice at either event, but we're exploring the possibility,'' he said.

Officials said Cho graduated from a public high school in Chantilly, Va., in 2003. His family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse in Centreville, Va.

"He was very quiet, always by himself,'' neighbor Abdul Shash said. Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him. He described the family as quiet.

Virginia Tech Police issued a speeding ticket to Cho on April 7 for going 44 mph in a 25 mph zone, and he had a court date set for May 23.

South Korea expressed its condolences, and said it hoped that the tragedy would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation.''

"We are in shock beyond description,'' said Cho Byung-se, a Foreign Ministry official handling North American affairs.

A memorial service was planned for the victims this afternoon at the university.  Gov. Tim Kaine was flying back to Virginia from Tokyo for the gathering.

Classes were canceled for the rest of the week.

Many students were leaving town quickly, lugging pillows, sleeping bags and backpacks down the sidewalks.

Jessie Ferguson, 19, a freshman from Arlington, left Newman Hall and headed for her car with tears streaming down her red cheeks.

"I'm still kind of shaky,'' she said. "I had to pump myself up just to kind of come out of the building. I was going to come out, but it took a little bit of 'OK, it's going to be all right. There's lots of cops around.'''

Although she wanted to be with friends, she wanted her family more. "I just don't want to be on campus,'' she said.

The first deadly attack was at the dormitory around 7:15 a.m., but some students said they didn't get their first warning about a danger on campus until two hours later, in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., around the time the second attack began.

Two students told NBC's "Today'' show they were unaware of the dorm shooting when they walked into Norris Hall for a German class where the gunman later opened fire.

The victims in Norris Hall were found in four classrooms and a stairwell, Flaherty said. Cho was found dead in one of those classrooms, he said.

Derek O'Dell, his arm in a cast after being shot, described a shooter who fired away in "eerily silence'' with "no specific target -- just taking out anybody he could.''

After the gunman left the room, students could hear him shooting other people down the hall. O'Dell said he and other students barricaded the door so the shooter couldn't get back in -- though he later tried.

"After he couldn't get the door open he tried shooting it open ... but the gunshots were blunted by the door,'' O'Dell said.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger emphasized that the university closed off the dorm after the first attack. He said that before the e-mail was sent, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms and sent people to knock on doors to warn them.

"We can only make decisions based on the information you had at the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it,'' Steger said.

Until Monday, the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK

The secret history of Big Pharma's

role in creating and marketing 

Heroin, LSD, Meth, Ecstasy and Speed 

By Mike Adams

Most consumers think that street drugs are in an entirely different class than prescription drugs, and they believe that pharmaceutical companies would never manufacture or sell street drugs. But guess what? As you'll read here, drug companies actually invented many of the street drugs now considered to be the most devastating, including heroin and meth ("ice").

Here are seven facts you probably never knew about the connection between street drugs and pharmaceutical companies:

1. Heroin was launched as a medicine by Felix Hoffman, an employee of Bayer, only a few days after he invented aspirin. Bayer immediately applied for a trademark on the term "heroin," then began marketing the drug as a cure for morphine addiction. It was also marketed as cough syrup for children.

2. Parke-Davis, a subsidiary of Pfizer, promoted and sold cocaine. It even produced a "cocaine injection kit" complete with a syringe for shooting up. Skeptical? You can view the picture yourself by clicking www.NewsTarget.com/gallery/articles/ParkeDavisInjection.jpg

3. A subsidiary of Novartis, Sandoz Laboratories, introduced the world to LSD in 1938, marketing it as a psychiatric drug named Delysid. This same drug company also created saccharin, the artificial chemical sweetener.

4. Drug giant Merck pioneered the commercial manufacture of morphine from opium and was a heavy pusher and marketer of cocaine. Merck also patented MDMA (Ecstasy, the rave drug). After World War II, Merck also began producing pesticides and food preservatives.

5. Ritalin is "speed" for children. A chemical amphetamine, Ritalin is made of controlled substances that would land you in prison if you sold them to a kid on the street, yet the drug is currently prescribed to millions of schoolchildren in the United States to treat a "brain chemistry condition" that was invented by the drug companies.

6. In the 1930's, drug companies marketed amphetamines as over-the-counter inhaler medicines for treating nasal congestion. Tablet amphetamines were also widely available in tablet form and frequently abused by students, truck drivers and other groups.

7. Meth was originally synthesized by chemists and later refined by drug companies. During WWII, "meth" was actually prescribed to soldiers by the U.S., Germany and Japan. Even Hitler was known as a "meth head" by his own staff. By the end of the war, millions of military personnel were addicted to the drug.

Today, meth ("crank") is made from ingredients found in over-the-counter cold medicines. While a meth epidemic sweeps America, destroying entire communities and even threatening some states (Hawaii in particular), drug companies insist their cold medicines should remain over the counter and not be classified as controlled substances. There is currently no legislative effort whatsoever to ban over-the-counter cold medicines containing the chemicals used to create meth.

Also related: Coca-Cola really did contain cocaine during its first few decades on the market (it also contained kola nut extract, hence the name). Cocaine was later removed from the formula and replaced with caffeine, a substance that is similarly addictive and serves much the same purpose.

Once you realize the connection between street drugs and prescription drugs, it's easy to figure out why Big Pharma is such a strong supporter of the Partnership For A Drug-Free America -- because they don't want consumers getting their drugs from street dealers, they want people buying their drugs from drug companies! Drug companies' attempts to outlaw street drugs are little more than a way of eliminating the competition and monopolizing the drug market.

Ultimately, Big Pharma is just another drug pushing cartel that has the same goals as any drug dealer: Convince customers they need your drug, get them hooked on it, and eliminate the competition.

The only difference is that Big Pharma has been so successful at dealing drugs that it has enough funds to buy off Congress, the Food and Drug Administration and practically the entire psychiatric industry (not to mention medical schools and mainstream media outlets).

Today, more than 40 percent of the U.S. population ingests FDA-approved synthetic chemicals manufactured and marketed by drug companies.

Drug companies think this number is too low. Their goal is to have 100 percent of the U.S. population taking not just one drug per day, but multiple drugs every day, for life.

NewsTarget.com

CHOICE AMERICA NETWORK