A Stolen Victory During the Beer Summit–OR, How to Rewrite Congressional Votes While No One is Really Looking (It’s About Our Food)

~~By Grail Guardian

Virtually unnoticed this last week by the MSM (who’d a thunk?) while the Resident hoisted a cold one with his new BFFs was the seemingly unremarkable failure of a bill that hasn’t been in the news much, HR2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. Right about now you’re probably yawning and asking, “So what, Grail?” But before you click your browser button, let’s review exactly what this bill that InfoWars.com referred to as “Totalitarian Control of the Food Supply”. (I know, I know; it’s Alex Jones. But as a friend of mine used to say, “Every once in a while even a blind squirrel gets a nut”! This time he’s got lots of company.)

[Author’s note: I apologize for all the links, but it’s hard to accuse a monster corporation with attempted genocide without backing it up.]

Let’s start with the basics: Monsanto. You know who they are, right? If you’re not familiar, they’re basically the agricultural equivalent of Goldman Sachs. Big business, big restriction of competition, big health issues (in case you forgot Monsanto owned the rights to Aspartame when it was patented), and most importantly big buddies with the big “O”. Monsanto is the largest grower of fruits and vegetables in the world. They also manufacture the herbicide RoundUp. Sounds innocent so far, right? Bzzzzt! After RoundUp became the most widely used weed killer in the world, the sneaky little bastages at Monsanto decided that since virtually no one pays attention to agriculture anymore they could stealthily take over not only the marketplace, but literally the world’s food supply. They started making GMOs or Genetically Modified Organisms. And yes, that’s as spooky as it sounds.

There are basically 2 GMOs we need to be worried about: RoundUp Ready seed and Terminator Technology (basically sterile seeds that do not reproduce after one season so the farmer must purchase more seed – from Monsanto, of course – each year). Let’s take them one at a time:

RoundUp Ready seed has been genetically altered by Monsanto so that if it is sprayed with RoundUp, the desired plant won’t be killed by the herbicide. Sounds pretty good, at least until you think that through a bit. You probably have used RoundUp yourself to kill a few weeds growing between the cracks in your driveway or back yard patio, right? Me too. You take the bottle and aim at the weed, then in a few days it withers and dies. So the rocket scientists at Monsanto decided, “Well if a little works, a lot would be much better, right?” They engineered crop seeds so that instead of targeting the weeds, farmers can spray their whole crop and kill just the weeds while the corn, soy, or canola would survive to be harvested without all the hassles. But if you follow that thought through to its logical conclusion, what that means to you and me is that farmers are now dousing our food with RoundUp before they send it off to the local store or giant food processing plant. Now I’ve never tasted the stuff, but I can tell you from the smell that RoundUp is not something I want included in my diet. Shades of DDT anyone? What’s worse, neither the farmer nor the food processing plant need to disclose to us as consumers that this food was soaked in a chemical designed to destroy living organisms. Makes me feel all warm inside. (Or is that merely the burning of my digestive tract being slowly destroyed by the simple act of eating?)

Terminator Technology or sterile seeds are the Big M’s other grab to take over the world food supply. Monsanto uses genetic engineering to develop plants that are incapable of reproducing after 1 season. This means that poor farmers throughout the world will be left without the ability to use seeds from their current crop to start next year’s crop – they must buy new seed from Monsanto each year in

In India, this is a cause for some concern as scientists fear for the livelihood of 400 million farmers and for food security in the country. Already some poorer Indian farmers have been driven to suicide. It is feared that this type of technology could be used to make the poorer farmers even more dependent.

So much for solving the world hunger crisis. Now on to our innocuous bill, HR2749. The summary provided by the Congressional Research Service tells us that our bill

Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) issue science-based performance standards to minimum…

Hmmm. “Science-based standards”. Now just who might be in the business of creating these standards? Could it possibly be the scientists at good ol’ Monsanto?

(3) inspect facilities at a frequency determined pursuant to a risk-based schedule; (4) establish a food tracing system; (5) assess fees relating to food facility reinspection and food recall;

A“food tracing system”? Seriously? Am I going to break a tooth on an RFID chip? Will this be added to my electronically distributable Health Care records gathered under HR3200:America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009? Will my food be held up until it starts to rot while it is properly” inventoried?

and (6) establish a program for accreditation of laboratories that perform analytical testing of food for import or export.

I guess this leads us to the conclusion that current labs are not accredited. Yikes!

Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) order an immediate cessation of distribution, or a recall, of food; (2) establish an importer verification program; and (3) quarantine food in any geographic area within the United States.

In other words, it’s up to the sole discretion of the Secretary (it’s not real clear to me if this refers to Tom Vilsack, the Monsanto fed Secretary of Agriculture or Obama lapdog Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services – not that there’s a difference) whether anyone can distribute food, or if food can be quarantined without due process of law. Winston? Is that you?

Provides for unique identifiers for food facilities and food importers.

There is not limitation on this. It could be required, under this law, for small farmers that sell fruit on a roadside stand, or even for people who grow their own tomatoes in the back yard. Kiss your local farm market goodbye unless they’ve got compliance bucks.

Deems a food to be adulterated if an inspection is delayed or refused.

Here’s the government double dip; first they can delay the food to be properly traced and inspected, then they can commandeer it after they held it up too long to still be fresh.

Gives the Commissioner of Food and Drugs subpoena authority with respect to a food proceeding.

Great. The FDA, who brought you such medical wonders as Aspartame, Fen Phen, and Vioxx gets to issue subpoenas against Farmer Jones down the road that had the audacity to try to grow his crop without using RoundUp on it.

Aside from my personal commentary, the less-snarky folks at FoodRenegade.com also point out:

A careful reading of the bill also reveals that HR 2749:

1. Will create duplicate fees & requirements for certified organic producers.

2. Will erode wildlife habitats in a misguided attempt to keep produce “clean” — when it is clear from the scientific evidence that it is industrialized animals that spread E.Coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella, not wild animals.

3. Will greatly increase the costs associated with safely composting manure and using it as a fertilizer for natural and organic crops.

4. Will interfere with and possibly prohibit small-scale farmers adding value to their products. This includes washing and cutting produce, creating canned jams or jellies, anything really.

5. Will require a costly electronic filing system that may well put farmers using paper records out of business, including many of our Amish brothers and sisters who can not comply with the electronic filing standards without violating their religious principles.

6. Will give the federal government the power to ban raw milk sales.

Ironically, it was the politicians own attempts at back door deals and sneakiness that appears to have sunk this ship during the legitimate House vote.

The bill was voted on by suspending the rules, limiting discussion to less than an hour, and not allowing any amendments that could have clarified who these new rules should affect. In the course of the last 24 hours, the language of the bill had been changed three times, and most representatives didn’t have the chance to read the latest version before being required to vote.

The only reason this bill is NOT the current law of the land is that it did not win enough of a majority to pass.

If you’re paying attention to the above quote written on July 29th, you should be scratching your head and saying, “huh?” So now it’s time for the kicker. The bill was voted on in the House of Representatives on July 29, 2009, and here is a direct copy from govtrack:

Jul 29, 2009: This bill failed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The vote was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill, needing a two-thirds majority. This usually occurs for non-controversial legislation. The totals were 280 Ayes, 150 Nays, 3 Present/Not Voting. Vote Details.

That was the way the page read yesterday when I started to write this article. When I went back to source some material, I suddenly noticed a spiffy little amendment:

Jul 30, 2009: This bill passed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The totals were 283 Ayes, 142 Nays, 8 Present/Not Voting. Vote Details.

That’s right, America! While you were watching Obama, Gates, Crowley, and Biden sing “Ein Prosit”, Congress was busy changing the vote on this bill because they (read Pelosi, Obama, Monsanto) didn’t like the outcome!

A little critical analysis of the changed votes shows that a couple of different things:

1) The members of the “Blue Dog Democrat Coalition” were obviously strong-armed into submission (along with a few non-proclaimed Blue Dog-type friends) when the Speaker didn’t get the results she wanted .

2) The RINOS (Republicans in Name Only) were easily bought off once again. There is no difference between the 2 major parties.

3) John Murtha needs to take his Alzheimer’s medications.

Here’s the breakdown:

Congressional District	“Representative”	Change in Vote	Designation
AL-2	Bright, Bobby [D]	Nay to Yea	Blue Dog Coalition
CA-47	Sanchez, Loretta [D]	Not Voting to Yea	Blue Dog Coalition
CO-3	Salazar, John [D]	Not Voting to Yea	Blue Dog Coalition
FL-5	Brown-Waite, Virginia [R]	Nay to Yea	RINO
FL-8	Grayson, Alan [D]	Yea to Not Voting	Almost grew a spine
FL-10	Young, C. W. [R]	Nay to Yea	RINO
GA-7	Linder, John [R]	Nay to Not Voting	RINO
IL-8	Bean, Melissa [D]	Nay to Yea	Chicken
MN-2	Kline, John [R]	Nay to Yea	RINO
MS-4	Taylor, Gene [D]	Nay to Yea	Blue Dog Coalition
MO-2	Akin, W. [R]	Nay to Not Voting	RINO
NJ-3	Adler, John [D]	Yea to Not Voting	Confused
NY-23	McHugh, John [R]	Not Voting to Yea	RINO
NC-9	Myrick, Sue [R]	Nay to Yea	RINO
OR-3	Blumenauer, Earl [D]	Nay to Yea	Chicken
PA-12	Murtha, John [D]	Yea to Not Voting	Confused as hell
TN-4	Davis, Lincoln [D]	Not Voting to Nay	Blue Dog Coalition
TX-24	Marchant, Kenny [R]	Yea to Nay	Woke up from his nap
WI-8	Kagen, Steve [D]	Nay to Yea	Chicken

Here’s the breakdown:

So, my friends, we’ve been bamboozled again. We had a victory, but just like during the Democratic primaries, when TPTB didn’t get their way they simply changed the vote. Just like that. And the residents in Florida should be ever so happy to learn that they were screwed by both political parties once again. Um, guys – 3 of your non-representing Representatives changed their votes after the fact; think you might want to consider a change in 2010? Like None of the Above!

Now comes the question, “What can we do about it?” There are several things:

1) This bill has not passed the Senate yet. Get on the phone/fax/email and hammer them! Let them know there’s no way you’ll let anyone forget if they vote to starve America and the world.

2) If you live in one of the districts listed above, get on the phone and scream at these bastages! Let them know that you’re paying attention and you know they changed their vote. Demand to know why?

3) Join the march on Washington, D.C. on September 12, 2009. We need to let those inside the Beltway know that America does not support their thieving stealing lying condescending flip flopping actions against our wishes.

4) Boycott Monsanto. Shelly Roche from ByteStyle TV started this seemingly impossible (but in reality simple) idea. Check out her video here for one way to beat them at their own game.

If all this talk about Monsanto determining what you can eat has gotten to you, Shelly has also put together a dynamite list of how to recognize GMO foods that’s worth checking out. To induce you to read her article, I’ll share one I didn’t know about:

Look at the stickers on fruit – there is a PLU code with either 4 or 5 numbers. If your fruit’s label has 4 numbers, it is conventionally grown. 5 numbers starting with a 9 means it was organically grown, and 5 numbers starting with an 8 means GMO.

Last, but not least, if you really want to be vigilant about avoiding GMOs, corn is an important yet difficult thing to avoid (thank you Tom Daschle). Check out the Emergency Guide to Avoiding Corn from findsafefood.com. You might be surprised at where it’s hiding.

We’ve Lost a Noble Warrior, But Will Not Give UP the Fight! In Memoriam: Marlene C. Utz

Editor’s Note: We here at IA received the sad news of the death of Marlene Utz, Grail Guardian’s mother, on Friday.  We send our heartfelt condolences to Grail and her family and our love and respect to Mrs. Utz. Godspeed, noble warrior…From all of us here at IA.  (SEE UPDATE AT THE END OF THIS POST)

~~By Grail Guardian

We’ve lost a noble warrior, but will not give up the fight!

In Loving Memory

Marlene C. Utz

April 10, 1938 – February 5, 2009

As many of you know, the past few months have been especially rough for me since my Mom was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in her life. She battled courageously as we tried everything in our arsenal to beat back the beast. But just as our nation was overtaken from the evil within, she lost her valiant struggle this week to that which grew inside her. I have learned so much while researching her disease, possible cures, and the corruption that has swallowed our “health care” system and smothered any hope of recovery for cancer patients in this country. I cannot begin to share with you all of the details I have found, but this will be the first in a series of articles about the death of the medical profession in America, and as you will see it is totally related to the current political crisis in this nation.

Let me begin with the personal part of the tale, because my mother’s story needs to be told. We first discovered she had cancer when she went in for what was to be a routine cholecystectomy, the removal of her gall bladder. Normally, the surgery is laparoscopic and involves four small incisions, miniature surgical tools, and an overnight stay in the hospital. I myself had the procedure several years ago, and was home the next day. The surgeon called down to the waiting room following the procedure and informed my Dad that there had been a mass in the gall bladder and they had to perform an open surgery and would be biopsying the mass. She was left with a major incision and a five day hospital stay( which she was furious about). But after the surgery, despite her gaping abdominal wound, I began to notice that she appeared healthier than she had seemed in months (if not years). When she went for her standard follow-up visit with the surgeon after a couple of weeks (there was a visit in between with a nurse or PA to check the incision) he brusquely informed my parents that the mass had been malignant, that he probably had not been able to remove it all, and, as an almost casual aside,  mentioned that he had removed part of her liver during the surgery. He referred her to a local cancer clinic, where we were immediately told that a program of chemotherapy, followed by a month of radiation therapy plus chemo, and finished off by another 3 months of chemo alone was pretty much the only way to go. It would not cure her, but if all went perfectly we could expect to get maybe a year and a half more of her life.

Now having gone through some of the earliest chemotherapy ever given, nitrogen-mustard gas (yes, the same stuff they used during WWI and subsequently banned from warfare, but not medicine), Mom was more than a bit reluctant to have chemo again. But once faced with the option that she was going to die (and die very quickly) if she didn’t have the treatment, she surprised us by changing her mind and agreeing to the chemo. Based on the recommendation of the oncologist, she started a 3 week course of Gemcitibene in October. After a week off, she took another 3 week course in November. The following week (on her recovery week) they sent her for a CT scan, where she was asked to drink radioactive material so they could trace its course through her body. It was immediately following this test that she began her slow downward slide. She felt very tired and drained for a few days, and the following week when we took her in for her next round of chemo, we got the news; it wasn’t working and she had developed “nodules” across her peritoneum (the protective tissue that surrounds your abdominal organs. There was no need to continue the chemo or try radiation we were told, and they basically sent her home to die.

That’s when the anger kicked in. We became defiant and refused to believe that it could be over and done with so quickly. After all, nearly 40 years before Dad had been told to go home from her hospital room and begin the funeral arrangements (she was proud to tell everyone she knew that she outlived 5 of her doctors after her bout with Hodgkins) and my sister had been told her son, who had fallen into a swimming pool at age 4 and suffered severe brain damage, would not survive–but he lived for another 21 years. So I went into research mode. I began to read everything and anything I could get my hands on about cancer. I scanned websites and articles that told of successful alternative treatments performed in other countries such as the South American herb Graviola, Japanese mushroom therapy (Shiitake and Maitake mushroom extracts), mistletoe, and even the heat treatments performed in Germany on the rich and powerful that simply raise the body temperature to 107.5 ° and make you feel like you’re taking a pleasant nap as cancer cells are killed off and healthy cells survive. According to author Andrew Schollberg:

When President Ronald Reagan got cancer during his presidency, the great German doctor Hans Nieper, M.D, treated him. It would have been front page news if it hadn’t been hushed up at the time.

Just imagine if the American public knew a sitting president preferred German cancer treatments!

I learned about it from my confidential source in Germany. In addition, Reagan’s German doctor acknowledged it in an interview.

I learned that the salary for an oncologist in the US can range from over $100,000 per year for new docs, and as high as $787,000 per year for radiation oncologists. Andrew Schollberg also claims that American pharmaceutical companies have offered a German doctor 3.7 million euros (approx. $5 million US) under the table merely to recommend that his cancer patients use their brand of chemotherapy. That’s one single doctor, and that should give you an idea of how lucrative the chemotherapy business is in the United States. He adds:

It costs $350,000 to die of cancer in America.

So I read on; books like How to Fight Cancer and Win by William L. Fischer that stressed the importance of diet in preventing and beating cancer, including details of the poisons labeled as food on your grocery store shelves in the guise of commercially processed fats (a true eye opener, even if you don’t have or fear cancer). I read pamphlets like  Deadly Cancer Myths – And the Truth that Will Save Your Life by Dr. William Campbell Douglass, I that talked about the dangers of chlorine, flouride, and prescription drugs. We radically changed her diet, including freshly juiced vegetables and fruits (especially antioxidant rich purple ones), stopped red meat and sugar intake, and (thanks to my sister’s natural foods website) added supplements like Silymarin, IP6, and Nattokinase to her daily regimen.

While we frantically reviewed the myriad of alternative treatments, my cousin Christina (who has a medical background) e-mailed that she knew a doctor that had successfully treated a friend of hers for lymphoma and strongly urged us to see her. Her name is Dr. Dana Flavin, and she heads the Foundation for Collaborative Medicine & Research (http://www.collmed.org/). What Dr. Flavin does (and did next) is truly amazing.

Dr. Flavin is a former toxicologist for the Food and Drug Administration. She spent 20 years doing research on cancer and cancer prevention in Germany before returning to the US and heading the Foundation. Put simply, this woman reads between 100 – 150 medical research papers each week. She is an intellectual sponge that understands the nuances of biochemistry, pharmacology, and nutrient biochemistry and translates an incredible amount of highly detailed scientific data into an understandable treatment plan that doesn’t unnecessarily poison (chemotherapy), burn (radiation therapy), or cut (surgery) the human body in an effort to heal it. She will consult with your current physician or oncologist and recommend a course of action based on all the latest data that your doc doesn’t have the time to read because they’re busy treating 30-40 patients per day.

We were lucky enough to be able to take Mom to the Foundation in Greenwich, CT last month for a consultation with Dr. Flavin. We were armed with a 38 page report from the cancer clinic and the desire to learn. And boy, did we learn! We spent nearly 3 hours with Dr. Flavin as she not only rattled off a variety of natural supplements to build the immune system, detoxify from heavy metals, and remove parasites (not the big kind, the microscopic stuff like bacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast) but also made us aware of a new treatment discovered by the University of Alberta (Drs. Stephen Archer and Evangelos Michelakis) involving Dichloroacetic Acid (DCA), which appears to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Apoptosis is a natural process that cells use to commit cellular suicide when their time is up. Cancer cells do not die off like healthy cells, and DCA appears to restore that function to the cancer cells.

Needless to say, we were quite excited when we learned about the possibilities, plus Dr. Flavin also provided Dad with some help for his case of borderline glaucoma (which she noticed immediately upon sitting down opposite him at the table) and psoriasis. I had pages of note with the names of natural substances that would help Mom, plus we all had a comfortable understanding of what each item was expected to do and why. When the time came to leave, we were bracing ourselves as Dad asked her “How do we pay you?” and you can’t imagine our relief when she responded that we could make a donation to the Foundation according to our financial ability. She understands that many cancer patients have been so financially raped and physically abused by the approved “main stream” medical system that they cannot always afford hundreds or thousands of dollars in additional medical advice, even though they desperately need it.

I would like to take a moment out here for a shameless plug. If you have ever lost someone to cancer (or any other disease) and felt like they should have, or maybe even could have been saved if only there were just one more thing you could try, I would like to ask you to consider donating anything you can muster to the FCMR (there is a handy PayPal link at the site: www.collmed.org ). If you have ever laughed, cried, or been moved by anything I have written here at Insight Analytical, consider taking the money you might have donated to a political candidate this year and instead direct it to the Foundation. Their work will actually save lives, rather than ruin them. (unabashed begging)

We now return you to my story. We left feeling encouraged, hopeful, and much lighter of spirit. I called my sister that night and read her off the list of supplements we would need and told her about our wonderful experience. As we spent the night at Mom’s cousin’s house, we gushed with enthusiasm and tried to explain the sheer phenomenon that is Dr. Dana Flavin. I even snuck on to their PC to check out the magnificent website she had recommended for research:

http:www.thedcasite.com

This site contains a wealth of information about the research that has been done, plus a forum for families and patients to share their experiences using DCA. I was overjoyed at the possibilities, and could hardly wait till we returned home to start my research into DCA. And just as you might expect, once again the walls came tumbling down. As I read and researched DCA, I made a horrible discovery. Not about side effects or lack of efficacy, but about its regulation. You see, as it turns out the University of Alberta took out what are called “methods of use patents” on DCA and decided to forge ahead with studies of DCA as a possible cure for cancer. And I’ll bet you can already guess what the rub was; yep, you guessed it! Money. The almighty buck, the great North American greenbacks. You see, DCA is actually * gasp * inexpensive. That’s right, no drug company can patent it and make trillions of dollars a year off of it like they do chemotherapy drugs. So likewise, no pharmaceutical manufacturer was willing to spend the estimated $1.5 million needed to conduct the required blind studies on DCA. (Don’t despair totally, the U of Alberta is proceeding on their own by privately raising the funds to conduct the required studies on their own!) So my next lesson in the world of DCA was horrifying; the FDA had actually shut down DCA manufacturers for selling DCA in the US. In fact in July, 2008 the website http://www.buydca.com/ was raided and shut down. It is operated by the same people who run the informational site http:www.thedcasite.com, but was not the first or only such raid on a website that sells supplements. Click here to read about the terror induced by the FDAs Gestapo-like tactics against the Life Extension Foundation.

The long and short of it was this: the FDA (self-proclaimed arbiter of good and evil items to ingest, and the folks that brought you such perennial favorites as Aspartame, Vioxx, and Fen Fen) had declared it illegal to sell DCA in America. We were crest-fallen. I began to research whether we could enroll Mom at a Toronto clinic so she could receive legal DCA cancer treatment or whether I could purchase DCA in Canada and bring it back to the US legally. I was frantic to get on to the chat room at the site, but the night I tried to register I was unable to do so. I sent an e-mail to the administrator and he responded the next day. I was able to log on, and since I had his attention, I asked if there were any legal way to obtain DCA in New York. The wonderful folks at the site: Jim Tassano, Heather, and Jackie all contacted me to ensure that I was able to obtain some pure, pharmaceutical grade DCA without violating any laws. (If anyone reading this ever wishes to try DCA in the US, e-mail me at GrailGuardian@nonpartisan.com and I will gladly help you.)

We waited anxiously, but Mom started to show signs that she was weakening even further. She wasn’t eating much solid food, needed to sleep often, and started to have intermittent pain in the vicinity of her liver. On the day I walked into the house with the DCA, she had been on a diet of over 30 natural supplements to strengthen her system but before she was able to take her first dose she began to have swelling in her feet. Worried, I called Dr. Flavin to ask her advice. She was concerned about kidney or liver failure and recommended we get her in for tests right away. We trundled her off to the cancer center to have blood drawn and a urine test, but the strain on her body was evident. By the next day, she had begun to experience new pain that did not go away no matter what she did (by now she was sleeping in her wheelchair with her head on the kitchen table as it hurt too much to lie back in bed). The oncologist had called to say her kidneys were fine, but didn’t really go into much detail with Dad and he was distracted by her worsening condition. She stopped eating anything solid, but still took her DCA treatments every day. By the weekend, she was unable to help Dad transfer her in and out of the wheelchair so the round-the-clock care began. My sister and I started to take shifts to spend the night so Dad wasn’t on call for her 24 hours a day (he was totally exhausted because she rarely slept through the night). During the days, I made calls to Dr. Flavin and the cancer center. They hadn’t sent the test results to the Foundation, so there was little Dr. Flavin could do but guess as to what was happening. I struggled for a full week before I was finally able to get the tests faxed to her, and by then Dr. Flavin was very worried about her liver and the huge increase in her tumor markers. She recommended another treatment called Hepa-Metz, which removes ammonia from the liver, but were unable to get to see the practitioner as he was half a state away (unlike Dr. Flavin, he seemed more worried about being sued and how he would get paid). We did all we could do to make her comfortable (which, of course, never seemed like enough), and eventually brought in hospice care through Lifetime Assistance, who were absolutely wonderful at the end. The nurses and social workers listened and took notes about the treatments we were trying, excited about the possibilities. Even the nurse that showed up after she finally surrendered peacefully asked questions and wrote down Dr. Flavin’s name and the Foundation’s website.

When I e-mailed Dr. Flavin that Mom had passed, she took the time to reply to me:

”Only God can do miracles, and perhaps you did even more than any mortal could have done. Tell your Dad, he did all he could and more. When it is too late, we have no decision anymore on this. God bless”

And with those words begins my next quest; to find out why it should be that we, as ordinary Americans, can learn more and do more to cure cancer and ease pain than the entire combined medical establishment of this nation, powered by the Ted Kennedys and Tom Daschles of the world. To find out why those who shun the poison/burn/cut philosophy cannot find funding, and why a family’s efforts to try everything before giving up hope are met with ridicule, derision, and impatience by the very people paid to give aid and comfort and first, do no harm. I will continue with Mom’s fight, and urge each and every one of you to join me. The current Congress and Administration will only make matters worse, and “Universal Health Care” in this country died a violent and rapid death 16 years ago when Hillary Clinton’s efforts were trashed by Big Pharma and the MSM used the opportunity to wage their personal war against the only politician in modern times that ever actually attempted to improve the health care system in America.

I will continue her fight, and I know she will be beside me all along the way.

This is a photo of Mom in her InsightAnalytical hat (made with love by our own Kenosha Marge). She loved this hat, and felt she was somehow connected to us by it. One of the last times she left the house she wore another of Marge’s hats on the trip to CT to see Dr. Flavin, but this one will be present at her viewing this weekend.

***

Related post:

5. The Heart of the Season: Hats for Grail Mama and Friends Beyond Family

***UPDATE***

These and MORE LINKS to USEFUL INFORMATION in this FOLLOW-UP POST. ALSO, SEE THE LIFE/HEALTH TAB at the top of the home page for additional resources.

2/12/2009 Health Links: Alternatives to Mainstream Medicine re: Cancer and Other Diseases; Stem Cell Research Clinic

Why, Oh Why? Melamine in Infant Formula?

(Editor’s Note: With “healthcare reform” beginning to gather steam (see previous posts at IA on the subject), an equally important area of concern involving health and safety issues involves the FDA and who may be appointed to head this department.  See here for a rundown from the  Washington Post on the problems the agency faces and a list of possible candidates being considered by the Obama Transition Team.–InsightAnalytical-GRL)

~~By kenosha Marge

I’ve been following the story about melamine in infant formula. It just seemed so indicative of our dysfunctional government that a toxic substance would be in a substance that we should insist be as close to100% safe as could possibly be achieved. Isn’t the FDA there to protect our children and us? Shouldn’t they be leading the charge to ensure that standard? They would if we had a government agency that protects and serves the people of this country and not the corporations.

I learned that melamine is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. I learned that there are tests that estimate protein levels by measuring the nitrogen content, so they can be misled by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine. Oh yummy! High protein and sticks to your ribs too.

Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer. Is that a chance most parents would want to take with their babies? Probably not but then they would have to be aware of the problem before they could get all irate about it wouldn’t they? And then they would have to disbelieve the FDA which now says, “nothing to worry about here”.

A short time ago federal food regulators said they were unable to set a safety threshold for the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula. Now, however, they found a way to settle on a standard that allows for higher levels than those found in U.S.-made batches of the product. It’s perfectly logical if you believe that what was bad last week isn’t bad this week. It’s perfectly logical if you believe the FDA knows what the hell it’s talking about or if you think they give a crap about the safety of the citizens, and their babies, of this or any other country.

Food and Drug Administration officials set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical is not present. They insisted the formulas are safe. Because saying that the formula was not safe would be bad for business don’t you know, and that’s the FDA’s real concern.

The Associated Press reported that FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker. The contaminated samples, which both measured at levels below the new standard, were analyzed several weeks ago.

What exactly is melamine? Before I get nuts about it perhaps I should know a little more about what I’m discussing. After all, it’s only infant formula and how important can that be?

Let’s see: Melamine is an organic base and a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 66% nitrogen by mass and, if mixed with resins, has fire retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred, and has several other industrial uses.

I am not a chemist. I do not understand a whole lot about about chemicals. All I know is that there are a whole lot of them I do not want to find in food. Particularly in infant formula. Who knew we needed a fire retardant in infant formula? Has there been a rash of infant formula fires I didn’t hear about?

Let’s try the wisegeek. Hmm, wisegeek says: “Melamine is an organic compound that is often combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a synthetic polymer which is fire resistant and heat tolerant. Melamine resin is a very versatile material with a highly stable structure. Uses for melamine include whiteboards, floor tiles, kitchenware, fire retardant fabrics, and commercial filters. Melamine can be easily molded while warm, but will set into a fixed form. This property makes it ideally suited to certain industrial applications.”

I don’t know about anyone else but the idea of something that is used to make floor tiles being inside infant formula disturbs me. I used to eat off of melamine dishes. The idea of ingesting them never occurred to me. Nor anyone else I know.

No need to worry because our every vigilant FDA is once again lagging to the rescue and sorting out all the brouhaha.

The Food and Drug Administration was formed in 1901 as the Bureau of Chemistry. Then in 1927 it became the Food Drug and Insecticide Administration. The word insecticide somehow got dropped along the way and we have our current champions, the FDA. Their headquarters are at 5600 Fishers Lane in Rockville, Maryland. They have about 9300 employees and an annual budget of $2.3 billion. The commissioner and politician in charge is Andrew von Eschenbach. Their parent agency is the Department of Health and Human Services.

These people have a budget of $2.3 billion and they can’t guarantee the safety of infant formula? Oh wait, they just tell us it is safe to have one of the ingredients for floor tile and kitchenware in infant formula. This is the agency that is supposed to protect the foods we eat and the medications we take. Perhaps I am being alarmist when I just don’t think having an ingredient for floor tile in baby formula is a good thing. Maybe I’m just a tad picky about what chemicals my great-granddaughter might be ingesting when I give her a bottle.

A more naïve me used to believe that the FDA would protect the citizenry and ensure that their foods and drugs were safe. It has now my belief that every agency in Washington D.C. is all about protecting corporations from their many and egregious assaults on the public health. When does corruption cross over into depraved indifference as they say on Law and Order?

Many of us are told that we are slobs and it’s our fault that we aren’t healthy cause we don’t eat right and don’t exercise and oh, by the way, it’s quite all right to feed your baby floor tile. Non-fat and no sugar! Hooray. And you won’t find that at a Fast Food drive through. Or maybe it’s in the food there too. Oh my.

What to do, what to do? Go graze in a nearby field? Chomp on the bark of a tree? Or are they saturated with pesticides that contain chemicals that will make rot us from the inside out?

The one thing you can safely count on is that your government will do nothing to protect you and everything it can to protect the corporations that are poisoning you and your children. Because the corporations got the money and the power and we/you/me don’t. That is ultimately why the FDA is telling us that certain levels of melamine are not harmful in infant formula. The question is, how many of us believe them?