We Are The World, Part II

As the mainstream media and Hollywood musicians gear up for another fundraiser for the relief efforts in Haiti with the release now of a recycled "We Are The World" video that was featured during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, there are some that have been heavily involved in questioning once again the official stories with respect to the catastrophy in Haiti last month that, in my opinion, bear a little scrutiny.

Especially with the announcement by the Obama Administration that the United States once again is poised to build another nuclear reactor this time in Georgia (and I hope this one, after being funded - or billed to the deficit - by the American taxpayers isn't again privatized and shares sold on the global stock exchange once again affording foreign ownership of another nuclear reactor in this country) all the while condemning Iran's continued uranium enrichment programs which that country's leadership continues to defend as merely a way for it to also go "nuclear" for its power and energy needs.

I guess I don't really understand politics at all, at this point, since it would appear that since the U.S. has continued to enrich uranium for its power and energy needs, especially with this new announcement, is it not hypocritical then to condemn other nations since we were, after all, the first to go "nuclear" for our power and energy needs to begin with?

Iran's uranium enrichment program may be a threat to the government and people of Israel in that it MAY be used for ulterior motives, but since they also have gone nuclear and have their own stockpile of nuclear weaponry, this debate continues to puzzle not simply me at this point.

Part of the development of nuclear reactors and uranium enrichment also involves nuclear testing and many of such tests have been conducted throughout the world since the discovery of nuclear fission.

The tests are conducted below ground, of course, thus affecting the plates that compose the Earth's subterranean core, as it were, and thus any and all nuclear testing which is done also has the potential of disrupting and shifting some of those plates.

It has also been interesting the involvement of the Hollywood community once again for what occurred in Haiti, and the reports of the deaths which have occurred have varied according to which mainstream media reporting agency is doing the reporting, of course.

With the amount of Americans now homeless and jobless, especially in the West and Southwest, I find the involvement of the Hollywood community on behalf of this effort rather surprising, given that there are as many homeless in our country as have been impacted in Haiti.

If each of those recording artists that donated their time for the "We Are The World" Part II session simply donated 10% of their earnings alone, Haiti could be reconstructed by the end of 2010, I'm sure.

Perhaps getting out of the studio a little more often and looking around, they might decide eventually to do a "We Are The Country" video, you think?

Since the unemployment rate and joblessness in this country is now approaching that of the Great Depression, from all economic indicators. I mean asking the disappearing middle class to kick in their mortgage, grocery or utility payment for Haiti is a little much given what is occurring in this country at this time.

The increases now also in violent personal and property crimes and loss of lives staggering, and increasing also by the year since there are many truly desperate people out there who have truly lost everything they had and their homes and not due to "nature" or malfeasance in nuclear testing, but greed of the U.S. government and its banksters, whether foreign or domestic.

And why are all those agencies that are involved simply requesting cash, instead of blankets, water and food to aid these victims ala Katrina, when it is now well known that a great deal of the relief monies sent by the American people to help with that relief effort never went to the victims at all, but those individuals and agencies now using disasters, natural or otherwise, as economic stimulators of their own?

Fighting For Your DNA: Citizens' Council On Health

In addition to the many fronts that are now being waged against American citizens' privacy rights against unlawful search and seizure, chalk one more up that is now being fought on the state level with respect to the most private information, in addition to your medical records, that any American citizen has. His very own DNA.

Right now there is a battle going on in the State of Minnesota with respect to ownership rights of American citizens DNA which is being fought by the Citizens' Council on Health Care.

Twila Brase, the spokesperson for this organization, recently was on the Glenn Beck show attempting to enlighten and educate the public on the assaults which are now going on at both the state and federal levels with respect to Americans; medical information such as the provisions contained within the stimulus package on the establishment of a National Health Care Database, and the even more violative one now being waged in Minnesota over ownership rights of private citizens DNA, and that of their children.

This small, privately funded groups is and has been facing a David and Goliath battle against several medical research facilities, and the huge civic organization, the March of Dimes, who would like to be able to harvest DNA samples from patients in hospitals, including infants, for medical research purposes WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT, and accessible through a "state" warehousing facility.

It appears that these groups and research facilities are attempting to form a public/private partnership with the states in order to house this DNA for what is being represented as "for the good of humanity," in fighting birth defects and genetic diseases, but which also potentially could be used in the future for morally repugnant purposes also, such as selective genetic screenings and abortions, or genetic altering or engineering.

The bill also is rather ambiguous and silent on whether or not these DNA samples then could also be used for other reasons, such as evidence then in criminal proceedings without the issuance of warrants or probable cause thus convicting individuals without affording them the Constitutional protections of due process and meeting evidentiary standards in criminal proceedings.

The state would have custody of these records and samples in a DNA "warehouse."

It also appears that the expenses in maintaining such a warehouse have not also been give even cursory consideration.

CCHC has been fighting in order to place simply minimal "informed consent" requirements within the bill.

But I, as a citizen, believe this fight needs to be expanded in order to provide not merely the "safeguard" of implied consent, but should be mandated to require full disclosure, and "express" consent, a higher legal standard.

Simple implied consent would afford hospital administrators and corporate attorneys to hide such provisions within hospital admittance forms in all the legalese that is already included in such forms.

How many Americans, especially women in the midst of labor, have the presence of mind to truly digest the many pages included within hospital admittance forms now as it is. Express consent forms would require a separate and specific signature form and disclosure, and the risks involved to both patient and in the instance of children, their newborn, and require disclosure of the specific purpose for which the DNA will be used.

My basic question also is why is the state getting involved in this at all, at the taxpayer's expense with respect to warehousing these samples?

If the March of Dimes or Mayo Clinic (one of the research facilities involved) would like access to individual citizens DNA, should this not also be between doctor and patient or guardian, with the March of Dimes and these research facilities then also able to request volunteers for specific, legally sanctioned and regulated research purposes, with laws also strictly formulated and enforced on the storage methods and destruction of those samples and records after the specific research has been concluded?

These researchers must know at this point due to the push now for access to Americans DNA what exactly they hope to achieve with such research.

Limiting through legislation the purposes for which these samples can be used to purely "research" and not in any way "engineering," or as "selective abortion" diagnostic instruments appears to be absent in even minimally addressing this potential can of worms in the legislation as it is now written in its current form.

Below is the link to the CCHC's website, and they could use all the support they can get in fighting this open ended legislation at this point, which is now also spreading to other states throughout the nation:

http://www.cchconline.org/