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Today's
Stories
January 12
/ 14, 2007
Laith al-Saud
The
Ironies of Bush and Iraq
January 11,
2007
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The
Profits of Escalation
Paul Craig
Roberts
Carter's Inconvenient Truths
Kathy Kelly
Refugee Drreams
Dave Lindorff
Blood for Face
Jeff Leys
The War Widens
Richard W.
Behan
Barrels and Bodies
Col. Douglas MacGregor
Surging Right Into Al-Sadr's Hands
Website of
the Day
An Explanation from Google
Speech of the Day
Is There Even One Politician Alive Who Could Give This Speech?
January 10, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
Walk in Oaxaca
Robert Fantina
Punishing
Deserters: Prosecution or Persecution?
Patrick Cockburn
Why Troop Escalation Won't Bring Peace to Iraq
Paul Craig Roberts
Distracting Congress: Troop Escalation and Iran
Col. Dan Smith
Why U.S. Policy is Failing
Ben Tripp
The Politics of Bad Karma
Evelyn Pringle
How the FDA Protects Big Pharma
Ron Jacobs
Coalition of the Lunatics: Trying to Create the Next World War
Mike Ferner
If Not Now, When?
Dave Zirin
Judgment of the Juiced: Why McGwire Wasn't Elected to the Hall
of Fame
Website of
the Day
Revolting Students!
Bootleg of the Day
Bob
Dylan: Live at Scotia Bank Place
January 9, 2007
R. T. Naylor
The
Somalian Labyrinth
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Purging of Palestinian Christians
Mike Ely and Linda Flores
The Smithfield Strikers: No Longer
Hidden, No Longer Hiding
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: More Bellicose Than Bush
Norman Solomon
The Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse
Sen. Russell
Feingold
An Open Letter to President Bush: So Now You Want to Snoop Through
Our Mail?
Joe Allen
Justice for the Omaha Two: Black Power, Racism and COINTELPRO
in the Heartland
James T. Phillips
"Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'Intrate": The Hell
That is Iraq
Brian Concannon
Resolutions for Haiti
Leonard Peltier
When the Truth Doesn't Matter: 30 Years of FBI Harassment and
Misconduct
Website of the Day
Kick Out the Jams, MFers!: Meet the New RRC
January 8,
2007
Werther
Why
We Fight
Jeff Leys
The Occupation Project: a Campaign of Civil Disobedience to End
Iraq War Funding
Paul Craig Roberts
Nuking Iran
Shulamit Aloni
Israeli Apartheid: Sorry, This Road is For Jews Only
Dave Lindorff
The Party of Invertebrates Reverts to Form
Sunsara Taylor
The Democrats' First Day: Same As It Ever Was
Seth Sandronsky
Syndicated Error: George Will and the Minimum Wage
Dr. Susan Block
Baghdad Cockfight Ends in Snuff Film
Website of the Day
Watch CounterPuncher Sunsara Taylor Take on Bill O'Reilly!
January 6 / 7, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
War and the NYT
Franklin C.
Spinney
Stalingrad
on the Tigris
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Urge to Surge
Ralph Nader
Democrats in the Spotlight
Walden Bello
Globalization in Retreat?
Marleen Martin
The Needle and the Damage Done: Tortured in the Death Chamber
Brian Cloughley
We Do What We Like: Return Our Rapist or Else ...
Uri Avnery
The Kiss of Death
Saul Landau
Fidel Castro in the Fields
Ron Jacobs
From Cointelpro to the Patriot Act: a Legacy of Torture
Joseph Nevins
Crimes Against Humanity from Ford to Saddam
William S. Lind
A State Restored? Somalia and 4GW
Gary Leupp
Attention John Conyers: Impeach the President!
Elisa Salasin
Bringing Life to Numbers
George Ciccariello-Maher
Beyond
Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution
Stefan Wray
Confronting Recruiters: the Story of the Bush Street Raiders
Michael Leonardi
Toward an International Moratorium: Italy's Crusade Against the
Death Penalty
Richard Rhames
Reality TV: Triumph of the Thugs
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Barbara LaMorticella
Two Poems
Website of the Weekend
FBI Witch Hunts
Song of the
Weekend
End Times: a Soundtrack
January 5, 2007
Jorge Mariscal
Growing
the Military: Who Will Serve?
John Walsh
Clash of the Elites: Beltway Insiders vs. Neo-Cons!
Christopher Brauchli
The Great Relaxer: Bush and Federal Regulations
Travis Sharpe
No More New Nukes, Please
Tom Barry
Hawk for Hire: Roger Noriega's New Gig
Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese
Americans Voted for Peace: Has the New Congress Already Let Them
Down?
Tiffany Ten Eyck
Workers' Centers and Unions: a New Alliance
Mahmoud El-Yousseph
A Challenge to Pelosi
Lucinda Marshall
3003 Funerals: "And They're Still Burying Ford!"
Website of
the Day
Van the Man: Warm Love
January 4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Martyrdom of Saddam Hussein
Winslow T.
Wheeler
A Guide to Earmarks: Will the Democrats' Reforms Do Anything
to Curb Pork Barrel Spending?
M. Shahid Alam
Has Regime Change Boomeranged?
Raed Jarrar
So This is Plan B? The US Attack on Saleh Al-Mutlaq's Headquarters
Bert Sacks
Can the US Legally Kill Iraqi Children?: a Challenge to the Supreme
Court
Kathy Rentenbach
Report from Oaxaca
Stephen Fleischman
The Rain of Riches: Bonuses, Then and Now
George Bisharat
Carter's Truths
Peter Rost, MD
Hail the Hangman, Jail the Cameraman!
Evelyn Pringle
Can Eli Lilly be Held Criminally Liable for Zyprexa?
Website of the Day
Courage to Resist
January 3,
2007
Kathy Kelly
Wrapped
Around a Bullet
Paul Craig
Roberts
His Last Hurrah: Bush Cuts and Runs from Reason
William Johnson
No Worker is Illegal: SEIU Members Push Their Union to Change
Its Policy on Immigration
Stan Cox
Under a Brown Cloud: Money vs. the Monsoon
Trita Parsi
A Lose-Lose Situation with Iran
Declan McKenna
Ireland's Slavish Hostility Toward Cuba
Joe Bageant
Dispatch from the Chinese Landfill
Nicola Nasser
Somalia: New Hotbed of Anti-Americanism
Missy Beattie
Dead Wrong
Website of
the Day
Pharmed Out
January 2, 2007
Michael Watts
Oil
Inferno
Amina Mire
Return of the Warlords: Death and Destruction for Somalis
James Brooks
Pushing the Wedge in Palestine
Alevtina Rea
The Tyrant is Dead! Long Live ... ?
Al Krebs
Global Food Security: a Call to Action
Peter Rost
Invitation to a Hanging: the Saddam Hussein Execution Video
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
A Deadly December
John Stanton
Appetites for Destruction
Website of the Day
Out Now: Petition
January 1,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Iron
Man, Tin God: the Meaning of Saddam Hussein
Uri Avnery
What
Makes Sammy Run?
Joshua Frank
Eliot Spitzer's Constitutional Hang Up: Architect of New York's
Patriot Act
December 30
/ 31, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
2006,
Hard to Call It Vintage, But 2007 Could Finally Be Bobby Byrd's
Year
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
2006: a Nation Soaked in Blood Tears Itself Apart
Paul Wolf
Dying for Our Sins: A Lawyer for Saddam Describes How His Execution
on the First of Eid May Transform Him Into a Martyr
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Executing
Saddam, Protecting the Rackets
Tariq Ali
Saddam
at the End of a Rope
Paul Craig Roberts
The New Dark Age: Official Lies, Dogma and Unaccountable Power
Douglas Valentine
At the End of My Rope: Hanging With Saddam
Brian M. Downing
The New Iraq Policy: Escalation
Michael Donnelly
Injustice in Black and White: the Duke Non-Rape Case
Stephen Lendman
Did Sharon Order the Assassination of Arafat? The Revelations
of Uri Dan
Fred Gardner
Comes Now the Ghost of "Decrim:" Nixon and Marijuana
Bailly / Caudron / Lambert
Who Owns Ikea?: the Opaque Legacy of Ingvar Kamprad
Ralph Nader
The Prospects for Progressive Politics
Nick Dearden
The War on Terror Hits Africa
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
The Third Degree: an Interview with AC Thompson on the Origins
of the CIA's Secret Rendition Flights
Missy Beattie
In Harm's Way: How Our National Coward Describes War
Ron Jacobs
Sigh of the Oppressed: Religion and Politics
Dan La Botz
Defend Illegal Immigrants: Help Them! Harbor Them!
Andrew Wimmer
An Act of Contrition: the Peace Movement in 2007
Dr. Carol Wolman, MD
Psychiatrist: Impeach Bush for Good of Country
Martha Rosenberg
New Year's Resolutions for Big Pharma
Dick J. Reavis
News Before It Happens: Bush's 2007 MLK Day Speech
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Listening to James Brown and His Followers
Poets' Basement
Grima, Curtis, Davies, Orloski and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Charlie Fowler's Photolog: a Life at Altitude
Music Video of the Weekend
"We're Winning the War on Drugs!"
December 29, 2006
Bill Quigley
A
Tale of Two Sisters: Why is HUD Spending Tens of Millions in
Katrina Money to Bulldoze 4,534 Public Housing Apartments in
New Orleans?
Norman Finkelstein
The Dershowitz Treatment
John Borowski
Curb Your Environmentalism: Laurie David and Me
Abid Mustafa
The Re-Talibanization of Afghanistan
Greg Moses
World Responds to Palestinian Family's Jailing Despite Media
Blackout
Uri Cohen
Stand Up for Herod: a Seasonal Story of Ancient Palestine
Bailly / Caudron
/ Lambert
The
Secrets in Ikea's Closet
Website of
the Day
Justice for New Orleans
December 28,
2006
Norman Finkelstein
The
Ludicrous Attacks on Jimmy Carter's Book
Anthony Cowell
Highway Robbery: Privatizing New Jersey's Toll Roads
John Ross
Gateway to the Next Mexican Revolution?
Hilaria Cruz
I'm Going to Stay Right Here: Story of a Oaxacan Prisoner
Greg Moses
Palestinian Immigrant Jailings in Texas
Brittany Bond
The Blood Trail of Luis Posada Carriles, Washington's Preferred
Terrorist
Website of
the Day
Godfather of Soul and Father of Funk
December 27,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Farewell
to Our Greatest President: Adieu, Gerald Ford
Faruq Ziada
Is
There a Sunni Majority in Iraq?
Christopher Brauchli
Burning EPA's Books: What They Don't Want You to Read Might Save
Your Life
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Journey to Vietnam: Dare We Not Say Genocide?
Nikolas Kozloff
Saving
Caracas
Mark Schneider
Why Hope? Reasons for Optimism
December 26, 2006
Peter Stone
Brown
James
Brown: Please Don't Go
Tito Tricot
Chile: the Ghosts of Torture
Gary Leupp
Cowboys Differ on Iran Attack: Cheney/Bush vs. the Baker Commission
John V. Walsh
Dershowitz vs. Carter in Beantown: Peace Movement AWOL, Again
Reza Fiyouzat
Red Christmas: Why Santa Was Hot in China This Year
Ron Jacobs
The Golem: a Conversation with Marc Estrin
Website of
the Day
JB:
Prisoner of Love
December 25, 2006
Saul Landau
A
Jeep Trip with Fidel
Lang / McGovern
To
Surge or Not to Surge?
Michael Dickinson
Should Stupid Thoughts Be Crimes?: Deny Santa If You Will, But
...
Website of
the Day
James Brown, RIP
December 23 / 24, 2006
Marjorie Cohn
What's
Going On?
Jeffrey L.
Gould
The Capital of Salvadoran Memory: El Mozote After 25 Years
Diane Christian
The Rape of Iraq
William Loren
Katz
From the Raid on "Fort Negro" to Iraq: Lessons from
the First US Invasion
Greg Moses
This War Can't be Made Right by Winning
M. Shahid Alam
An Islamic Civil War: Chaos by Design?
Fred Gardner
Exposé as Inoculant: HRT, Zyprexa, Lilly and the Press
Dave Lindorff
Crime of the Century
Azmi Bishara
Ways of Denial
Ralph Nader
The BCS: a Monopoly on College Football
Seth Sandronsky
Fiscally Imperiled Social Security?
William Hughes
Cop Assaults Activists at Lockheed Protest
Ron Jacobs
Making Stones Weep
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to on New Year's Eve
December 22,
2006
David Rosen
Bush's
Foreign Sex Policy: Imperialism's Second Front
Christopher
Brauchli
When the Secret is the Question: Secret Prisons, Top Secret Interrogations
John Ross
Flashlights
in the Tunnel of Hate
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Political
Sell-Outs in Black and White
Rahul Mahajan
Dennis Kucinich: Maverick or Stalking Horse?
Arthur Neslen
Provoking Civil War in the Occupied Territories
Peter Rost, MD
The Secrets of His Success: Fired Pfizer CEO Walks Away with
$198 Million
Website of
the Day
10 Ways to Change the World in 2007
December 21, 2006
Rosa Mariam
Elizalde
An
Interview with Gore Vidal: "I am Jealous of Cuba"
Arundhati Roy
Breaking the News
Brian Cloughley
Poppies Rising: Afghanistan's Drug Catastrophe
Daniel White
Jimmy Carter in Austin: Time to Come Clean on the Shoot Down
of That Itavia DC-9
John V. Whitbeck
On Israel's Right to Exist
Sam Smith
Still Smearing Ralph Nader for 2000
Paris Reidhead
GM Ice Cream: Something's Fishy in Your Good Humor Bar
Kevin Wehr
Denying Disaster: Katrina and the Case for Impeachment
Website of the Day
Pesticides and Amphibians: a Vital New Database
December 20, 2006
Gabriel Kolko
Rumsfeld
and the American Way of War
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The Pentagon Measures the Chaos in Iraq
Tariq Ali
The War is Lost
Saree Makdisi
Israel, Apartheid and Jimmy Carter
Bruce Jackson
Saying "Oh!": John Mohawk and the Power to Make Peace
Dave Lindorff
Democrats Walk Into a Bush Trap on Iraq
Leslie Radford
The Winter Harvest of the South Central Farmers
Dave Jansson
Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Secessionists Confront the
Empire
Johnny Barber
Jesus is a Terrorist
Website of
the Day
Is It for Freedom?
December 19, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
Democrats
Prepare to Fund Longer War
Jonathan Cook
End
of the Strongmen
Greg Moses
Globalized Gulag: Palestinian Refugees and Children Held in Hutto,
TX Jail
Sean Penn
Georgie,
There's a Crowd Downstairs
Dave Lindorff
Innocents Abroad: Cracking Down on Gitmo Detainees Despite Overwhelming
Evidence Most Are Not Terrorists
Ralph Nader
Going
Postal
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Pink Tide?
Carlos Villarreal
The
Well is Poisoned: Victory Requires an Immediate Pull-Out
Website of
the Day
Chuck Spinney on the Pentagon
December 18, 2006
Luis J. Rodriguez
En
Lak Ech: Chicanos, Mayans and Mel Gibson
Norman Solomon
Washington Refuses to End the War: Powell, Baker, Hamilton--Thanks
for Nothing!
Uri Avnery
Lebanon: War Without a Plan
Ron Jacobs
More Troops, More Body Bags
Phil Gasper
Afghanistan: Bush's Other War Unravels
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Iran's Elections: The World Isn't Florida and Bush Isn't Its
Supreme Leader
William Blum
The United States of Punishment
Jim Goodman
So What's the Big Deal If Wal-Mart Makes a Mistake?
James Brooks
Talking Surge: Let's Kill Some More Before We Go
Maria C. Khoury
Walking Into the Art World: Designing a Palestinian Academy for
the Arts
Website of the Day
Got Powell
December 16 / 17, 2006
Weekend Edition
Vijay Prashad
A
Perilous Way to Socialism
Saul Landau
Filming Fidel
Anthony Arnove
The US Occupation of Iraq: Act III of a Tragedy of Many Parts
Paul Cantor
The Puppet and the Puppeteer: Pinochet and Kissinger
Annie Nocenti
Baluchistan's Fight: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes
Nicole Colson
Hard Times on the Killing Floor: Smithfield's Rotten Record
Stephen Gowans
Tehran's Holocaust Conference
Jordan Flaherty
A Catastrophic Failure: Foundations, Nonprofits and the Second
Looting of New Orleans
Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Faces 15 to Life
P. Sainath
There's No Such Thing as a Free Cow
Seth Sandronsky
The Democrats and Social Security: Watch What the Party Says
and Does
Nadia Hijab
An AIPAC Shot Across Baker's Bow?
Deb Reich
Dear Santa, (Or Someone): Greetings from the Occupied Holy Lands
Susie Day
Cops Shoot Another Rich White Man!
Albert Wan
Why Does It Take 50 Bullets?
Missy Beattie
Will the Next Leader Stand Up? Please!
Martha Rosenberg
Kicking the Wyeth Habit Saves Women's Lives
Lee Ballinger
The Devil's Highway: Clinton, Border Checkpoints and the Deaths
of the Yuma 14
Michael Dickinson
Kingdom of Fear
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Live/Evil: Listening to Miles Davis
Poets' Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
Website of
the Weekend
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
December 15,
2006
Eliza Ernshire
Palestinian
"Civil War" and the Israeli Chocolate Ration
Virginia Tilley
What
Are You Going to Do Now, Israel?
Mike Ferner
Roll Call for the Choir: If They Vote for War, Occupy 'Em!
John Ross
Mad Mel's Mayan Apocalypse
Fred Wilhelms
The Flip Side of Ahmet Ertegun: Where Did You Get Those Shoes?
Kevin Zeese
Dennis Kucinich's Strange Mission: Can You Be a Real Anti-War
Candidate in a Pro-War Party?
David Severn
Social Engineering Begins at Home: Jeffrey Skoll, Billionaire
Philantropist
Dave Lindorff
Sen. Tim Johnson Death Watch: Senate Gridlock May Be Best Outcome
Sunsara Taylor
As American as Shopping and Torture
Website of
the Day
June 2, 2004: When Iraq Was There For The Looting
December 14,
2006
Jonathan Cook
The
Recognition Trap
Riz Khan
An Interview with Jimmy Carter
Jason Hribal
Kasatka, the Sea World Orca
Pennick / Gray
The Plight of Black Farmers: Racism in the US Farm Program
Richard Levins
That Embezzled Anti-Castro Money
Pat Williams
The College Crisis: Universal Access, Student Loan Debts and
Pell Grants
Peter Rost, MD
Simply Irresistible: Do Women Prefer Bad Boys?
Website of
the Day
The Sound of Rummy
December 13,
2006
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
is Beyond Repair
Greg Moses
The Dixie Chicks Come Home to Roost
Elizabeth Schulte
Hungry for the Holidays
Joshua Frank
Death By Coke
Debra Eschmeyer
Corporations Control Your Dinner
Leon Hadar
Baker's Rescue Mission: Too Little, Too Late
Peter Rost, MD
I've Been a Very Bad Boy
Margaret Knapke
Mow bé and Malachi, Presenté!
Reza Fiyouzat
Are Cows Free?
Fred Wilhelms
A Last Minute Appeal: If You Know One of These Musicians Let
Them Know They Are Owed Money--By Friday!
Website of
the Day
The Crimes of Augusto Pinochet
December 12, 2006
Fernando A.
Torres
The
Last Man of the Junta: an Open Letter to Kissinger from One of
Pinochet's Political Prisoners
Paul Craig
Roberts
America's
Injustice System is Criminal
Stephen Soldz
Abusive Interrogations
Uri Avnery
Baker's Cake
William S. Lind
Knocking Opportunity: From Vulcans to Vultures in Iraq
Missy Beattie
Convicted for Our Convictions: Trespassing for Truth at the UN
Dave Lindorff
The 35-Year Long Scream: Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Vet's
Tears
George Pyle
Our Perverse Farm Plan: Where Christmas Comes Every Five Years
Norman Solomon
Is the USA the Center of the World?
Website of
the Day
Citizens' War Tribunal
December 11,
2006
Virginia Tilley
Banning
Mandela
Roger Burbach
The Condor Model: the Atrocities of Pinochet and the US
Col. Douglas MacGregor
There's Only One Option Left: Leave!
Fawwas Traboulsi
Lebanon on the Brink
Ron Jacobs
Death of a Pig: Poetic Justice for Pinochet
Gideon Levy
The Cruel Line into Gaza: Elbow to Elbow, Like Cattle
Mary McGrane
Burning Books at Harvard Law
Bernardo Ruiz
The Disappeared of Oaxaca: a Message from One of the Actors in
Apocalypto
Website of the Day
La Cancion de la Unidad
Video of the
Day
Killing
Castro: Congresswoman as Contract Killer?
December 9
/ 10, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Liberal
Consensus for More Troops in Iraq
Sen. Gordon Smith
Out of Iraq: Cut and Run or Cut and Walk
Greg Grandin
Jeane
Kirkpatrick, Mid-Wife of the Neo-Cons
Paul Craig Roberts
How Many More Will Die for Bush's Ego?
Col. Dan Smith
The Vietnamization of Iraq: Inside the Military Training Program
Ralph Nader
The Man from NAM: John Engler's Trail of Destruction
Behrooz Ghamari
The Donkey and the Date: Iran's Upcoming Municipal Elections
Rev. Willliam Alberts
Doing Unto Others: Pastor Haggard and President Bush
James T. Phillips
The James Gang: "Did You Kill Her?"
Bennis / Leaver
A Bi-Partisan Occupation
Dave Lindorff
A Congress of Hucksters and Pipsqueaks
Nikolas Kozloff
Robert Gates and Venezuela: Another Saber Rattler in Latin America
Seth Sandronsky
Activating White Racism
Lucinda Marshall
McKinney and Karpinsky: Silenced for Telling the Truth
Mike Whitney
Something's Gotta Give: James Baker vs. the Lobby
John V. Whitbeck
Recommendation No. 80
Faisal Kutty
Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Merely a Western
Construct?
Hugh Sansom
Smearing Jimmy Carter: an Open Letter to the New York Times
Robert Gold
My South American Journey: Impunity in Colombia
Boots Riley
Crash and Burn: an Urgent Message from The Coup
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Engel & Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Alive in Mexico
December 8, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
The
Iraq Study Group's Cautious Appraisal
Leutisha Stills
Just
How Progressive is the Congressional Black Caucus?
Norman Finkelstein
The Media Lynching of Jimmy Carter
Will Youmans
Mr. Lieberman Comes to Washington: Brookings Hosts an Ethnic
Cleanser
Peter Rost, MD
What Went Wrong at Pfizer?
Jonathan Demme
My Friend Bruce Langhorne: a Great Musician Needs Your Help!
Ray McGovern
Senate Democrats Give Gates a Free Pass
Lucinda Marshall
What She Wore
Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn
The Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
John Lennon's FBI Files
December 7,
2006
Alex Friedman
Rev.
Phelps' Hate-Fueled Fanatics Find a Home in the Kansas Prison
Industry
Maureen Webb
Risk Scoring and the National Insecurity State
Paul Craig Roberts
Catastrophe Still Awaits
Dave Lindorff
Prosecutor Admits: Mumia Abu-Jamal Had "No True Defense"
Matt Vidal
Drug Pushers, Inc.: Power and Profit in the Legal Drug Trade
Yifat Susskind
Looking for a Few Good Principles: What Should be Done in Iraq
Rodriguez / Jones
NYPD's Death Squads: From Diallo to Sean Bell
Website of
the Day
2006, Remixed
December 6, 2006
Robert Bryce
Omitting
the Obvious with James Baker: From the S&L Crisis to the
Iraq Study Group
William S. Lind
The Boomerang Effect: When Will the First IED Strike Cincy?
Zoe Blunt
The Clearcut Truth About the Great Bear Rainforest
Corporate Crime Reporter
The New Conventional Wisdom: Prosecute Individuals, Not Corporations
Amira Hass
A Regrettable Indifference: Israel's Treatment of Palestinian
Prisoners
Richard W. Behan
The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War
Sophie McNeill
Why Hezbollah is Broadcasting Sunday Mass
December 5, 2006
Virginia Tilley
Apartheid
Israel: a Beacon of Hope?
Sharon Smith
The New Washington Consensus: Blame the Victims in Iraq
Joe Bageant
Somewhere a Banker Smiles
Ron Jacobs
A War Washington Can't Win
Norman Solomon
Media Consensus, Stay in Iraq!
Mike Whitney
Rumsfeld's Final Snowflake: "I Was Just About to Change
Everything ... "
Derrick O'Keefe
Regimes Unchanged: Chavez's Victory Strengthen's Cuba
Julian Assange
The Road to Hanoi
Missy Beattie
Bush, the Unhappy Helmsman
Website of
the Day
Lessons of Suez and Iraq
December 4,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Gaza
and Darfur
George Ciccariello-Maher
Tears of the Escualidos: Election Diary, Venezuela
Ray McGovern
Lame Ducks, Hold That Nomination!: a CIA Insider's Take on Gates
John Ross
Repression on the Menu in Mexico
Walden Bello
Hurricane Milton: Friedman, Bayonets and Markets
Peter Rost,
MD
Pfizer's Clueless Executives
Stephen Lendman
The Withering of the Bush Dynasty
Gideon Levy
This Ceasefire will Go Up in Flames
Website of the Day
The "Babes" of Hizbullah?
December 2
/ 3, 2006
Weekend Edition
Barucha Calamity
Peller
The
Dirty War of Oaxaca
Paul Craig
Roberts
Is Bush Sane?: When Denial Goes Pathological
Ralph Nader
The Big Boys of Financial Crime
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Committee of Enablers: Is Gates Fit to Serve? Are the Senators?
Amira Hass
The Checkpoint Generation
Maymanah Farhat
Depoliticizing Arab Art: Christie's and the Rush to "Discover"
the Arab World
Dave Lindorff
Fighting the Iraq War--At Home
Fred Gardner
Dr. Jimenez Defends His Practice Methods
Col. Dan Smith
The Semantics of Civil War
Raed Jarrar
Maliki's Monopoly of Power
Seth Sandronsky
US Prison Nation: Locking Up Surplus Labor
K.-Y. Taylor
The Bride Wore Black: the Shooting of Sean Bell and the Resurgence
of American Racism
Yifat Susskind
Greed, Dogma and AIDS
David Rosen
Made in China: the Global Trade in Sex Toys
Ron Jacobs
All Hands on Deck!: the New Pirates of the Caribbean
Nikolas Kozloff
Venezuela Prepares to Vote
Talli Nauman
Fighting La Choya: the Secret Toxic Dump on the Border
Alan Gregory
Shadow Trout: Why Hatchery Fish Aren't Real
Joe Allen
RFK and Hollywood Mythmaking: Emilio Estevez's Beatification
of Bobby Kennedy
St. Clair /
D'Antoni
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Ford and Orloski
Website of
the Day
Demo for Oaxaca
December 1,
2006
Greg Grandin
Midnight
in Mexico: Calderón's Inauguration Behind Closed Doors
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The
Mumia Case After 25 Years: Still More Keystone Kops Antics
George Ciccariello-Maher
Sleeping with the Enemy: At Home with the Anti-Chavistas
Brian J. Foley
Taking Responsibility for Iraq
Dave Zirin
Rebel Athletes: Organizing the Jocks for Justice
Joshua Frank
The Montana Formula: Jon Tester's Neopopulism
Chris Floyd
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Weekend
Edition
January 12 / 14, 2007
The Public has a Right to Know About the
Dangers of Zyprexa
The
Secrets in Eli Lilly's Cabinet
By EVELYN PRINGLE
In deciding whether to allow Eli Lilly
to continue to use court orders to hide documents that show the
company illegally marketed Zyprexa for unapproved uses and failed
to warn the public about the serious health risks associated
with the drug for a decade, the court needs to consider the harm
done to the public by Lilly's conduct.
The public has a right to know
everything about the drugging for profit scheme revealed in the
documents since the majority of profits made off Zyprexa came
from the public trough. The court needs to recognize the harm
done to tax payers in billing public health care programs like
Medicaid for the massive off-label sale of the drug. According
to the October 23, 2005, San Francisco Chronicle, nationwide,
Medicaid programs purchase an estimated 60 to 75% of antipsychotic
drugs.
In California for instance,
in the year ending June 2005, Zyprexa was the highest expenditure
at close to $250 million. On November 28, 2005, the Indianapolis
Business Journal listed Zyprexa as the most costly antipsychotic
covered by South Carolina's Medicaid program with a month's supply
of 20-milligram tablets costing South Carolina $700.52 at the
time.
On September 29, 2005, Bloomberg
News stated that Medicaid could reduce the "$5.5 billion
it spends annually on schizophrenia drugs for the poor"
because a study found the cheaper generic, perphenazine, about
as effective as new drugs, including Zyprexa.
"The 40-year-old drug
perphenazine costs less than $1.50 a day," Bloomberg wrote,
"while the newer medicines can cost 10 times as much."
When buying a 3-month supply,
at drugstore,com, the retail price for Zyprexa in September,
2005 was $1,500, and a 3-month supply of perphenazine, was only
$135.
Lilly has even found ways to
convince doctors within the Veteran Administration's hospital
system to prescribe Zyprexa rather than the older, cheaper and
equally effective drugs. Dr Robert Rosenheck, a Director with
the Department of Veterans Affairs, reviewed the prescribing
records for schizophrenic patients in the VA system for 2003
and found that more than 80% were on the new antipsychotics.
He calculated that the VA spent more than $208 million on antipsychotics
that year, with over $106 million, or more than half, spent on
Zyprexa.
According to the New York Times,
the company documents at issue show that Lilly knew full well
about Zyprexa's association with diabetes and weight gain that
often leads to diabetes. The public's right to know about this
charge can not be easily dismissed considering the costs to the
public of paying for the care of the tens of thousands of Zyprexa
victims who developed diabetes.
By using fraud, kickback and
antitrust statutes, state attorneys general all over the US are
filed lawsuits against Lilly to recover the money paid for Zyprexa,
and the medical costs for patients harmed by Zyprexa, whose health
care is covered by public programs.
In February 2006, West Virginia
and Alaska filed lawsuits against Lilly alleging the company
marketed Zyprexa for unapproved uses in those states and as a
result it has cost millions of dollars to care for patients who
developed diabetes and other diseases.
West Virginia is seeking payment
for all medical costs related to Zyprexa, in addition to the
more than $70 million the state paid for the drug. The lawsuit
says studies have linked Zyprexa to diabetes since 1998, and
that sales representatives misled doctors about the safety and
the efficacy of Zyprexa and that Lilly's advertisements deceptively
understated its risks and overstated its benefits.
The complaint alleges that
Lilly promoted "off label" prescriptions for a host
of conditions including anxiety, sleep disruption, mood swings,
attention deficit hyperactivity and dementia. "Lilly benefited
from its misrepresentations and fraudulent conduct by gaining
sales of Zyprexa at the expense of other, safe, effective drugs,"
the complaint states.
A lawsuit was filed by the
attorney general of Mississippi, JimHood, in July 2006, to recoup
the ill-gotten gains that Lilly enjoyed by promoting the off-label
use of Zyprexa in that state, and alleges that Lilly knew Zyprexa
increased the risk of diabetes, because in April, 2002, nearly
a year and a half before Lilly first warned doctors and consumers
in the US, the company changed Zyprexa's labeling in the UK and
Japan to include warnings about the drug's association with diabetes
related injuries.
Tim Balducci, Mississippi special
assistant attorney general, says Lilly targeted Mississippi because
the state,s Medicaid program is not set up to signal when a doctor
prescribes a drug off-label.
According to Mr Hood, about
10% of Zyprexa patients have developed diabetes, some of whom
are children, even though Zyprexa "has never been approved
for, nor found to be effective, in the treatment of children."
The fact is, Lilly has doctors
prescribing Zyprexa off-label to children and billing state Medicaid
programs all over the country. For instance, a study in the August
3, 2004, Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, found the
number of Tennessee children covered by TennCare, who were prescribed
antipsychotics nearly doubled in six years. The largest increases
were among children aged 13 to 18 at 116%, followed by a 93%
increase in children aged 6 to 12, and a 61% increase in use
with preschool children.
In Texas, a review of prescription
records for the months of July and August 2004, found that more
than 19,400 teenagers were prescribed antipsychotics billed to
a publicly funded program, according to ACS-Heritage, a medical
consulting firm hired by the state to investigate the use of
psychotropic drugs on children.
With nearly 98% of the teens,
ACS reported, the antipsychotics were prescribed off-label and
in more than half of the cases, the dosage appeared to be inappropriately
high. The study also said that almost half of the children did
not appear to have a valid diagnosis warranting the use of the
drugs, and one-third were on 2 or more drugs.
Research published in the March/April
2006 Journal of Ambulatory Pediatrics, led by Dr William Cooper
at Vanderbilt University, analyzed data drawn from the National
Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory
Medical Care Survey, which are national samples of health care
services rendered to the US population and conducted by the National
Center for Health Statistics.
Between 19952002, the study
found that there were nearly 6 million outpatient visits to health
care providers by children between the ages of 2 and 18, during
which an antipsychotic was prescribed. Nearly 80% of the visits
occurred in physician,s offices, 14% in outpatient clinics, and
9% in emergency departments.
The authors of the research
pointed out that there had been no increase in mental health
disorders that could account for the increases "as recent
studies do not suggest significant increases in the incidence
of schizophrenia," they stated.
"In addition," the
researchers noted, "schizophrenia and psychosis accounted
for only 13.5% of the total antipsychotic visits during the study
period, so this diagnosis alone could not explain the increase."
"Therefore," they
said, "the most likely explanation for the study results
is that similar to our findings in the Tennessee Medicaid population,
there was a substantial increase in physician prescribing of
antipsychotics during the study period."
Experts say the side effects
of Zyprexa are more common and severe in children than in adults.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia recently found that 19%
of children who were newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes were
being treated with the new antipsychotics.
Zyprexa is not only dangerous
when used by children, it is less effective than the older cheaper
antipsychotics. A study published in August 2006, by the New
York Psychiatric Institute, found that the older antipsychotics
worked much better, with the average response rate in children
using the new antipsychotics at only 55.7%, compared to a 72.3%
response rate among children who were given the older drugs.
The study also found that the
average weight gain in patients treated with the older drugs
was much lowers and the sedation side effect was less common.
The authors of this study also pointed out that the FDA "has
not approved any antipsychotic drugs for treating childhood schizophrenia;
yet, clinicians routinely use medications for this disorder."
There is no doubt that Lilly
knew about these serious health risks long before it issued warnings
in the US in 2003. In a study published in the July 2002, journal
Pharmacotherapy, P Murali Doraiswamy, the chief of biological
psychiatry at Duke University, reviewed the FDA adverse event
reports submitted on Zyprexa and found 289 cases of diabetes
reported, with 225 patients being newly diagnosed.
In addition, the review showed
that 100 patients developed ketosis, a serious complication of
diabetes, and 22 people developed pancreatitis or inflammation
of the pancreas that is life-threatening. The review identified
23 deaths, including a 15-year-old who died of necrotizing pancreatitis.
Last month, the New York Times
reported details from the documents that Lilly wants to keep
hidden, and revealed that Lilly sales representatives were promoting
Zyprexa with primary care physicians specifically for the off-label
treatment of dementia.
Before allowing Lilly to keep
this information secret, the court needs to consider the harm
being done to elderly citizens. On April 11, 2005, the FDA announced
that elderly patients with dementia who were given antipsychotics
were far more likely to die prematurely than those given placebos
and also announced the addition of black box warnings about the
increased risk of death on the labels of Zyprexa and the other
atypical antipsychotics.
A June 13, 2005, study in the
Archives of Internal Medicine, reviewed antipsychotic use in
nursing home for approximately 2.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries
and found that "over half (58.2%), received drugs that exceeded
the maximum recommended dosage, received duplicate therapy, or
had inappropriate conditions for the drugs to begin with. The
study determined that more than 200,000 residents received antipsychotic
therapy but had "no appropriate indications for use.
In October 2005, the Journal
of the American Medical Association published a meta-analysis
of trials of more than 5,000 elderly patients treated with atypical
antipsychotics that found that patients had a 54% increased chance
of dying within 3 months, compared to patients taking a placebo.
Lilly has also been actively
promoting the off-label sale of Zypexa in other countries. In
August 2006, Janet Currie, the director of the Victoria-based
Psychiatric Medication Awareness Group in Canada, called for
a public inquiry into the use of atypical antipsychotic because
they are being prescribed to children and the elderly for sedation
and behavioral control.
According to Ms Currie, Zyprexa
is a special authority drug that may only be prescribed under
special criteria and the patient must have been diagnosed with
schizophrenia or other non-dementia-related psychosis and other
antipsychotic drugs must have failed, or not been tolerated by
the patient.
In Canada, payment for Zyprexa
comes from the government funded PharmaCare program and according
to BC health ministry data, the program paid $26,493,119 for
Zyprexa in 2005.
Lilly is also facing numerous
lawsuits in Canada alleging the exact same conduct revealed in
the documents that Lilly is trying so desperately to suppress.
According to Lilly's SEC filings, in 2005 the company was served
with four lawsuits seeking class action status in Canada on behalf
of patients who took Zyprexa, and one of the lawsuits has been
certified for residents of Quebec.
"The allegations in the
Canadian actions," Lilly states in the filing, "are
similar to those in the litigation pending in the United States."
A lawsuit filed in New York
in August 2004, on behalf of private health insurers accuses
Lilly of violating racketeering laws, in part, by bankrolling
nonprofit groups to promote Zyprexa for unapproved uses and to
downplay the medicine's side effects.
Evidence to support these allegations
can be found in Kentucky. When Kentucky held public hearings
to try to exclude Zyprexa from Medicaid's list of covered drugs,
the most notorious Big Pharma backed front group in the US, the
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, bused in protesters for
the hearings, placed full-page ads in newspapers, and sent faxes
to state officials. However, a little known fact is that by funneling
money through NAMI, Lilly paid for the buses, ads, and faxes,
according to the December 18, 2003 New York Times.
Should the court continue to
allow Lilly to hide the documents with the incriminating information,
it will not be surprising to many experts. For as pediatrician,
Dr Lawrence Diller, author of the book, "Should I Medicate
My Child," stated in language relevant here, while testifying
before an FDA advisory committee in September 2004, regarding
the conduct of companies concealing the adverse effects of drugs
and promoting off-label prescribing:
"The blame is clear: The
money, power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry corrupt
all. The pervasive control that the drug companies have over
medial research, publications, professional organizations, doctors'
practices, Congress, and yes, even agencies like the FDA, is
the American equivalent of a drug cartel."
And it is clear in this instance,
that the thousands of lawsuits filed against Lilly have done
nothing to deter it from promoting the off-label sale of Zyprexa.
According to Lilly's SEC filings, sales worldwide in the second
quarter of 2006, were $1.12 billion, a 2% increase over the second
quarter of 2005.
In the filing, Lilly noted
that US sales of Zyprexa were down 1%, but said the company simply
charged a higher price for the drug to make up for the lower
sales.
To date, Lilly has agreed to
pay about $1.2 billion to settle claims with roughly 26,000 litigants
who alleged among other things, that the company promoted the
sale of Zyprexa for off-label uses and concealed the health risks
associated with the drug.
But legal experts say to look
for more settlements soon as Lilly tries to avoid public trials
in the Medicaid fraud cases, where it will be easy to prove that
Zyprexa sales would have spiraled downward long ago, had Lilly
quit promoting the drug for off-label use.
Evelyn Pringle is an investigative journalist. She
can be reached at: evelyn.pringle@sbcglobal.net
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