Alex welcomes to the show Dick Russell who co-authored Jesse Ventura’s New York Times’ best-selling book Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me and Ventura’s latest book, American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us, available at the Infowars Store. Russell’s previous book is Eye of the Whale, which was named among the Best Books of 2001 by the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Alex also talks with film producer and author G. Edward Griffin.

Watch the video archive and access the high quality MP3 by logging in at Prison Planet.tv and clicking on the “LIVE” page.

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Whitewash fails to mention that deal to build nuclear bomb was offered by the Bush administration’s favorite peddler of weapons of mass destruction

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Washington Post has completely whitewashed new revelations concerning how close Saddam Hussein came to obtaining a nuclear bomb by failing to mention the fact that the provider, Khan Research Laboratories, was shielded from investigation by the U.S. government for decades.

“As troops massed on his border near the start of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein weighed the purchase of a $150 million nuclear “package” deal that included not only weapons designs but also production plants and foreign experts to supervise the building of a nuclear bomb, according to documents uncovered by a former U.N. weapons inspector,” reports the Post today.

“The offer, made in 1990 by an agent linked to disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, guaranteed Iraq a weapons-assembly line capable of producing nuclear warheads in as little as three years.”

However, the report completely fails to even mention the fact that Khan Research Laboratories, the source from which Saddam would have procured a nuclear bomb, was protected from investigation by the U.S. government since at least the mid-1970’s, as investigative journalist Greg Palast exposed in a 2001 BBC report.

In 2004, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb program, admitted sharing nuclear technology via a worldwide smuggling network that included facilities in Malaysia that manufactured key parts for centrifuges.

Khan’s collaborator B.S.A. Tahir ran a front company out of Dubai that shipped centrifuge components to North Korea.

Despite Dutch authorities being deeply suspicious of Khan’s activities as far back as 1975, the CIA prevented them from arresting him on two occasions.

“The man was followed for almost ten years and obviously he was a serious problem. But again I was told that the secret services could handle it more effectively,” former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said. “The Hague did not have the final say in the matter. Washington did.”

Lubbers stated that Khan was allowed to slip in and out of the Netherlands with the blessing of the CIA, eventually allowing him to become the “primary salesman of an extensive international network for the proliferation of nuclear technology and know-how,” according to George W. Bush himself, and sell nuclear secrets that allowed North Korea to build nuclear bombs.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

“Lubbers suspects that Washington allowed Khan’s activities because Pakistan was a key ally in the fight against the Soviets,” reports CFP. “At the time, the US government funded and armed mujahideen such as Osama bin Laden. They were trained by Pakistani intelligence to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Anwar Iqbal, Washington correspondent for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, told ISN Security Watch that Lubbers’ assertions may be correct. “This was part of a long-term foolish strategy. The US knew Pakistan was developing nuclear weapons but couldn’t care less because it was not going to be used against them. It was a deterrent against India and possibly the Soviets.”

In September 2005 it emerged that the Amsterdam court which sentenced Khan to four years imprisonment in 1983 had lost the legal files pertaining to the case. The court’s vice-president, Judge Anita Leeser, accused the CIA of stealing the files. “Something is not right, we just don’t lose things like that,” she told Dutch news show NOVA. “I find it bewildering that people lose files with a political goal, especially if it is on request of the CIA. It is unheard of.”

In 2005, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged that Khan had provided centrifuges and their designs to North Korea.

Having armed once branch of the “axis of evil,” it’s no surprise that Khan was also used in an attempt to arm Saddam Hussein with nuclear weapons, opening up another perfect justification for Iraq to subsequently be invaded and occupied by U.S. forces.

Although the 2003 invasion was sold on the lie that Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction which proved to be non-existent, it wasn’t for the want of trying, since efforts to arm Saddam with nuclear weapons via the Khan network were a mere continuation of the U.S. government’s program to provide Saddam with chemical and biological weapons, tools used to commit atrocities that were later cited by the U.S. as one of the primary reasons for the attack.

Of course, since the Washington Post is a mouthpiece for the new world order and the Bilderberg Group that owns it, in covering the Khan-Saddam connection writer Joby Warrick knows that his bosses wouldn’t be pleased if he actually gave you more than half the story, which is why his article amounts to nothing more than a misleading whitewash.

“I’m going to hold people like Dennis Kucinich responsible for the 40,000 Americans that die each year from a lack of health care.”

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

The founder of the influential left leaning blog, The Daily Kos, has slammed Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich for sticking to his principles and refusing to tow the party line on government run health care.

Markos Moulitsas fiercely criticized the Ohio representative’s threat to vote against the health care reform bill, adding that Kucinich should be subject to a primary challenge as a result.

“God knows it’s taken us a long time to even get our toe in the door. … If somebody like Kucinich wants to block that, I find that completely reprehensible.” Moulitsas told MSNBC’s Countdown last night.

Earlier in the week, Kucinich had appeared on the same program, taking the opportunity to make it clear that he is willing to effectively kill the health care reform by voting against it, calling the bill a “bailout for private insurers”.

“This bill represents a giveaway to the insurance industry,” Kucinich said. “$70 billion dollars a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance, five consecutive years of double-digit premium increases.”

Kucinich stated that even if it meant he had the deciding vote in the House, he would oppose the legislation.

“If that sounded like a no, you’re correct,” the Congressman told guest host Lawrence O’Donnell, describing the proposed reform as akin to “building on sand.”

Moulitsas of the Daily Kos called Kucinich’s stance “a very Ralph Nader-esque approach to politics”:

“Ralph Nader paved the way for eight years of George Bush,” Moulitsas stated. “I’m going to hold people like Dennis Kucinich responsible for the 40,000 Americans that die each year from a lack of health care.”

“I don’t think he gets a pass. I don’t care what his excuse is… He’s not elected to grandstand and to give us his ideal utopian society… He’s not representing the uninsured constituents in his district by pretending to take the high ground here.” Moulitsas added.

“What he is doing is undermining this reform,” he added. “He is making common cause with Republicans. And I think that is a perfect excuse and a rational one for a primary challenge.” the blogger said.

Moulitsas then personally attacked Kucinich, whom he has long sought to demonize in the eyes of his so called liberal readers, claiming “He used his 2004 run for president to score dates. Luckily, he’s married this time around so we’ll be spared that pathetic display of desperation.”

Watch the video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Presumably Moulitsas would like to see a bought and paid for corporate Democrat take Kucinich’s seat in the House, someone who has greased their way up the party pole and long left behind any principles or interest in what is best for the good of the American people, as opposed to the giant corporations running the health care industry.

It is no surprise to see Moulitsas or “Kos” as he is otherwise known, shilling for the controlled left once more. He is an admitted former intelligence operative who considers the CIA “a very liberal institution”.

Infowars writer Kurt Nimmo hit the nail on the head in a 2007 piece on Moulitsas, noting:

Moulitsas’ relationship with the CIA makes perfect sense, as Daily Kos appears to be yet another political front operation tasked with cracking the whip over “progressive” Democrats and marching them off to support the Bilderberger Queen Hillary Clinton and her probable running mate, Barack Obama, both on record as supporting the neocon plan to reduce the Muslim world to a smoldering wasteland, albeit with stylistic policy changes. It is no secret the CIA has long stage managed the controlled opposition and Moulitsas’ admitted relationship with the agency should be considered a coup de grâce, an effort designed to reduce the “progressive” Democrat opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the impending attack to be leveled against Iran as little more than an empty and absurd rhetorical slogan.

Russia Today
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

In this edition of CrossTalk host Peter Lavelle asks his guests why discussion of the events of 9/11 continue to attrack so much attention but is all but banned in the media mainstream.

David Edwards and Sahil Kapur
Raw Story
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Karl Rove has been accused by prominent journalists of distorting and rewriting history in his new memoir Courage and Consequence. Now, he’s being rebuked as a fabricator by one of his close former colleagues in the Bush White House.

Former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan on Tuesday sharply rebuked Rove for absolving himself of personal complicity in the Valerie Plame scandal, alleging that the top Bush strategist privately confessed his role in the leak and apologized for it three times.

“I think what you’re seeing is that Karl is continuing to live in his own world here,” McClellan said in an appearance on MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann Tuesday.

“He’s the only one that thinks that he was not involved in any effort to expose Valerie Plame’s CIA employment. He continues this cover story that ‘I didn’t know her name’ and for that reason, he couldn’t have leaked her name.”

McClellan, whose own 2008 tell-all memoir What Happened revealed a slew of unflattering secrets about the administration, said he “did receive personal assurances from Karl” that he wasn’t involved before relaying the message to the press — which he was later criticized for.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

“The interesting thing is that Karl Rove actually did apologize to me on three occasions back in July of 2005 when it became known that he was involved,” McClellan said. “I’ll leave it to other people to judge what it says about someone who will privately make such an apology but is afraid to make such an apology publicly when the cameras are rolling and the spotlight’s on him.”

Probed Tuesday morning by The Today Show’s Matt Lauer on whether he believes he owes McClellan an apology, Rove shook his head and said “no” five times.

In his book, Rove vigorously defends his former boss’s campaign to sell the war in Iraq, insisting he never intended to deceive the American public.

McClellan joined his chorus of critics, claiming Rove’s retelling of the situation “creates a false choice based on a false premise.” He said Rove “tries to spin this narrative that since Bush didn’t deliberately or sinisterly lie the nation into war then somehow he was completely honest.”

Bush’s ex-spokesman noted that the administration’s case for invading Iraq was in large part based on the notion that Saddam Hussein was an immediate danger to the United States, that he was pursuing nuclear weapons and was in league with Al-Qaeda — none of which were true.

Accusing Rove of “too much intellectual dishonesty,” he added that “caveats and contradictory intelligence and doubts were ignored or just downplayed, and innuendo and implication were used in excess to try to sell” the war.

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, a White House correspondent during Bush’s first term, mocked Rove’s “historical rewrite” and said his new book “revives claims discredited long ago.”

This video is from MSNBC’s Countdown, broadcast March 9, 2010.

Russia Today
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Tbilisi has signed a contract with an influential US lobbying firm, the Podesta Group. Thanks to its efforts, President Saakashvili will reportedly pay his first visit to the US since Barack Obama’s election.

“Georgia online” reported Wednesday referring to US sources that in April Mikhail Saakashvili will meet with American President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials. However, the Georgian president administration confirmed the information about the trip but said it is not known yet whether the two presidents will meet, Internfax agency reports.

On Tuesday, Georgian news website Civil.ge reported that the six-month contract worth US$300,000 between Georgia and the lobbying company was signed in January. According to the documents submitted by the company to the US Justice Department, the Podesta Group (PG) will “provide lobbying, government relations, public relations and media management services to Georgia and will also arrange for its client meetings with members of Congress and their staff, as well as with executive branch officials.”

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Read more

The deal appears to have yielded initially positive results for Tbilisi. Russian daily Kommerstant writes that it is thanks to the PG efforts that an agreement over Saakashvili’s visit to Washington has been reached.

Once a favorite of the US administration, a frequent guest on Western TV channels, the Western-educated and English-speaking Saakashvili was seen as a face of democracy on the post-Soviet space. However, he has lost points following the EU report on the conflict in the Caucasus in August 2008, which stated that Georgia started the war in South Ossetia.

Full story here.

Schools can install cameras in bathrooms and spy on kids via laptops, but parents treated as pedophiles for taking innocent photographs of their own children

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Yet another story about a school installing surveillance cameras in bathrooms reminds us that, while parents are treated as pedophiles for taking photographs of their own children, any perversion whatsoever is acceptable as long as it is conducted by those deemed to be in a position of authority.

“Outraged parents have hit out at a school in Birmingham after pupils discovered CCTV cameras in the school’s toilets,” reports Sky News.

“Youngsters at Grace Academy in Chelmsley Wood claim they returned from half-term to find staff had installed the cameras without notifying them or their parents.”

The report points to another recent case in Britain, where a school in Salford filmed children in various stages of undress changing into their gym kit.

Parents slammed the move as a “total invasion of privacy” and many students refused to use the bathroom, but the school claimed that installing cameras to watch children in the most intimate setting possible was perfectly normal because “children want to feel secure”.

So as long as it’s done in the name of safety and security, watching children in bathrooms is acceptable. Perhaps child molesters who are caught with kiddie porn should use the defense that they are merely watching videos of children to make them “feel secure”. But we’re forgetting the golden rule – you’re only allowed to engage in such behavior if you happen to be ascribed some position of authority.

We have reported on numerous cases of school officials installing cameras in school bathrooms which allow perverts to spy on children in various stages of undress.

Compare this with the case of Kevin Geraghty-Shewan, a man who dared to take photographs of his own son in public riding a toy train.

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Geraghty-Shewan was promptly interrupted by a security thug who accused him of being a pedophile. The man was then approached by a police officer and threatened with arrest for having the temerity to get upset about the situation. Of course, the fact that Geraghty-Shewan and his son were simultaneously being filmed by a plethora of shopping mall CCTV cameras is beside the point – big brother is allowed to watch us but we can’t even record our own offspring without being lectured about how we’re potential child molesters by those in petty positions of authority.

And it’s not just school corridors and bathrooms where kids are being spied on. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the recent case in Philadelphia, where a school district issued laptop computers to 1,800 students across two high schools and then used concealed cameras within the machines to spy on students and their parents without their knowledge or consent, is the fact that school officials did not attempt to hide the scandal, they bragged about it.

In a PBS news clip, the assistant principle in a seperate case shows a reporter how, much to his own amusement, he spies on kids via their laptops and even takes pictures of them.

“I always like to mess with them and take a picture,” chuckles the man as the reporter whitewashes the alarming spectacle.

Watch the clip.

If a pervert had been caught installing software on laptops that enabled him to watch and record children, there would be outrage, but again, when someone in a petty position of authority does it, it’s normal and good.

A similar mindset can be seen with the introduction of naked body scanners, which despite the fact that they break child pornography laws, are being used on children of all ages to produce crystal clear images of their genitals which can be seen by airport security staff.

This cult-like mass mental illness that anything done by an authority figure is acceptable strikes at the very root of everything that’s wrong with our society today.

The broader argument is that schools across the western world are now beginning to resemble prisons as children are surveilled, policed and even arrested as criminals for the most benign adolescent behavior like doodling on a desk, as happened to 12-year-old Queens student Alexa Gonzalez recently.

Regular drug raids, strip searches and lockdowns all inculcate within the child the notion that they are a prisoner of big brother from an early age.

Anyone who can afford to get their children out of the public school system and place them in a well-run private school or better yet, home school their kids, would be insane not to do so in the current climate.

For those who can’t afford to do so, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time with your children in an attempt to reverse the psychological conditioning they are being bombarded with on a daily basis in the prison camps without bars that now pass for schools in many parts of the western world.

Rasmussen Reports
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 22% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21. That matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President (see trends).

Forty-two percent (42%) of Democrats Strongly Approve while 72% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major political party, 17% Strongly Approve and 45% Strongly Disapprove.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Fifty-seven percent (57%) believe that passage of the proposed health care legislation will hurt the economy. Just 25% believe it will help.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve.

Full story here.

Russia Today
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Dr. David Ray Griffin, professor and author of ‘The New Pearl Harbor Revisited’, believes 9/11 was an inside job.

Daniel Hannan
London Telegraph
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

As predicted, the European Parliament has voted for a tax on financial transactions, to be levied directly by Brussels. The vote went through by 536 to 80: only my own group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, voted solidly against the measure, although we had some support from UKIP and its allies as well as two Danish liberals and two Portuguese conservatives.

Anyone wondering why David Cameron broke with the palaeo-federalist EPP need only look at its automatic support for such measures as this. With a handful of exceptions – such as those two heroes from our oldest ally - the Christian Democrats invariably vote for higher taxes, greater state intervention and Euro-corporatism. I do wish British journalists would stop lazily refering to the EPP as “Centre-Right”; the EPP itself angrily insists that it is “a party of the Centre”.

The Tobin Tax might well be vetoed by one or other of the national governments. But the campaign for pan-European taxation is only just beginning. This will be the big battleground of the next five years. It’s time for a European Tea Party.

Full story here.

We The People Will Not Be Chipped
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Mr Scott Silverman from Verichip/PositiveId [the human implantable microchip company] explains how great the Verichip is and how you should just relax and like Mr Tinkles, just get the chip.

Emma Graham-Harrison
Reuters
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

BEIJING, March 10 (Reuters) – China’s top climate negotiator said on Wednesday that the cause of global warming was still not clear but the problems it was creating were so serious that the world must anyway act to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, also warned the United States it should not use domestic divisions over climate change as an excuse to pass its responsibilities off onto other countries.

“There are still two different viewpoints in the scientific field about the cause of warming,” Xie told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual session of China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament. ”

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

At present, many people, or the most mainstream view, is that the combustion of large amounts of fossil fuel over the process of industrialisation caused an increase in greenhouse gases, which caused climate warming.”

“Another point of view holds that the main reason is changes in sunspots, or natural changes in the environment. There is an even more extreme point of view, that human influence on changes in nature can only be miniscule,” he added.

Full story here.

Jane Hamilton
The Sun
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

RETAILERS are targeting individual shoppers with digital billboards like those in the hit Tom Cruise film Minority Report.

Cameras in the advert hoardings identify the age and sex of passers-by then display relevant products.

The makers claim images of faces are erased immediately but some consumers fear the billboards will capture their expressions and responses to the ads. The signs are being tried out in Japan. Digital advertising expert Omaid Hiwaizi, 40, from London agency Chemistry, said: “Companies will be watching closely to see if they do well.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

“Although it may seem scary, it’s no more sinister than retailers using cookies online to see what items you’ve looked at on their websites.

“Many already use this technology to work out what you want.”

Full story here.

Fox News
March 10, 2010

“I wasn’t intimidated.”

Fox News
March 10, 2010

“I think I’ve wasted your time. I think this is the first time I have wasted an hour of your time and I apologize for that.”

Fox News
March 10, 2010

“I can’t change it as a member of Congress. There is no way possible.”

Daniel Hannan
London Telegraph
March 10, 2010

Have you ever wondered why the eco-lobby is so pro-EU? Now you have your answer. Green pressure groups are becoming financially dependent on Brussels. Ten years ago, they received €2,337,924 from the European Commission; last year, it was €8,749,940.

A study by the International Policy Network reveals the extent to which Green lobbyists look to the EU for their income: Climate Action Network, Friends of the Earth, WWF, they’re all at it. Much of this money, the paper shows, is then recycled into lobbying the EU.

You see how the system works? The EU pays eco-lobbyists to tell it what it wants to hear. Its clients, naturally enough, tell it that the EU ought to increase its powers. A similar racket goes on between Brussels and the mega-charities (see here).

This isn’t just bad for democracy; it’s bad for the environment, because it equates conservation with state intervention and supranationalism. One of these Brussels-funded organisations recently produced a league of which MEPs were greenest. I like to think that I am pretty eco-conscious. I try never to fly or drive when trains are an option; Mrs H sources food locally, and reuses and recycles meticulously; we even had washable nappies for our children. But I came near the bottom of the table because I had voted consistently against giving more power to Brussels.

That’s the Left for you, I suppose, elevating motive over action, valuing the moralistic over the moral.

Full article here

Age Of Autism
March 10, 2010

Please read the full post and comment over at Huffington Post HERE.  Jenny will welcome your support and you know the “machine” has gone into overdrive to beat her up – and our kids. Don’t let them. Go comment at HuffPo. KS

Parents of recovered children, and I’ve met hundreds, all share the same experience of doubters and deniers telling us our child must have never even had autism or that the recovery was simply nature’s course. We all know better, and frankly we’re too busy helping other parents to really care.

Corner one of the hundreds of doctors who specialize in autism recovery, and they’ll tell you stories of dozens of kids in their practice who no longer have autism. Ask them to speak to the press and they’ll run for the door. They know better.

Most doctors in our community share a common trait: their own child regressed into autism. They fixed their kid first and knew they’d have to spend their lives helping parents do the same, accepting the loss of “mainstream” status in their field.

Who’s afraid of autism recovery? Perhaps it’s the diagnosticians and pediatricians who have made a career out of telling parents autism is a hopeless condition.

When I first went public with my son Evan’s story, I just planned to talk about the “R” word — Recovery. But soon I was spending most my time talking about the “V” word — vaccines.

It’s hard to address one without the other because so many of the parents of recovered children I know, myself included, blame vaccines for their child’s regression into autism and use vaccine injury as the roadmap to treat their child.

The idea that vaccines are a primary cause of autism is not as crackpot as some might wish. Autism’s 60-fold rise in 30 years matches a tripling of the US vaccine schedule.

With so many kids with autism, the environment has to be to blame, and vaccines are an obvious culprit. Almost all kids get vaccines — injected toxins — very early in life, and our own government clearly acknowledges vaccines cause brain damage in certain vulnerable kids.

Take those simple facts, along with tens of thousands of parental reports of regression after vaccination, not to mention a growing list of court cases where our government paid claims to children with autism acknowledging vaccines as the trigger, and the case we Moms are making makes sense…

Mike Adams
Natural News
March 10, 2010

For years, advocates of natural health have been hammering away at the message that soda causes diabetes and obesity. The soda industry, meanwhile, has remained in denial mode, mirroring the ridiculous position of the tobacco industry that “nicotine is not addictive.” Soda doesn’t cause diabetes, the industry claims, and it’s perfectly safe to consume in essentially unlimited quantities.

The Corn Refiners Association has joined the denial with its own spin campaign that seeks to convince people High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is totally natural and completely harmless. HFCS is, of course, the primary sweetener used in sodas and soft drinks.

Now comes new research presented at the American Heart Association’s Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention annual conference in San Francisco. This new research reveals that over the last decade, soda consumption has conservatively caused:

• 130,000 new cases of diabetes
• 14,000 new cases of heart disease
• 50,000 more “life years” with heart disease over the last decade

“The finding suggests that any kind of policy that reduces consumption might have a dramatic health benefit,” said senior study author Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo (associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco).

The American Beverage Association, meanwhile, says this study hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal yet and therefore it doesn’t count. Soda consumption doesn’t cause diabetes or heart disease, they claim, because “…both heart disease and diabetes are complex conditions with no single cause and no single solution.”

It’s silly logic, of course: Diabetes obviously has a cause. It’s not some spontaneous disease that appears out of nowhere. And when you go looking for the cause, you obviously have to look at dietary factors since diabetes is a disease related to the consumption and metabolism of dietary sugars. Once you do that, sodas immediately raise a red flag because they’re liquid sugar in a highly-concentrated form that does not exist naturally in nature.

HFCS doesn’t grow on trees, in other words. Nature provides sugars locked into insoluble fibers that slow digestion and lower the effective glycemic index of sugars that are consumed. In nature, sugars are always combined with minerals, too, and many of those minerals help prevent diabetes and heart disease. But High-Fructose Corn Syrup is stripped of virtually all those minerals. It contains no fiber and no healing phytonutrients that you might encounter in plants. As a result, HFCS — sometimes dubbed “liquid Satan” — might be called a dietary poison that causes disease while contributing to nutritional deficiencies that accelerate disease.

Bone loss

Interestingly, this new study did not look at loss of bone density, which is another side effect of drinking soda. Due to the extremely high acidity of the HFCS sweetener combined with the phosphoric acid used in sodas, people who drink sodas often lose bone minerals and end up being diagnosed with osteoporosis (even at a relatively young age).

Other people end up with kidney stones due to all these minerals passing through the kidneys and contributing to the built up of mineral deposits there. Long-term soda consumers may even suffer from pancreatic cancer due to the extreme stress placed on the pancreas following the consumption of liquid sugars.

In all, soda consumption is linked to at least six serious diseases:

#1) Diabetes
#2) Obesity
#3) Heart disease
#4) Cancer
#5) Osteoporosis
#6) Kidney stones

That’s why taxing sodas is more than merely a way to raise money through soda sales; it’s also a way to dramatically reduce the cost of treating these diseases. It’s no surprise that several U.S. states are now starting to seriously consider slapping new taxes on sodas and other “junk” beverages.

That’s not the way I would prefer to see the situation handled, actually. The better option, in my view, would be to ban all soda advertising by effectively stripping Free Speech rights from corporations. Such rights belong only to individuals, not multi-billion-dollar corporations. Corporations whose products physically harm the health of the population at large should not be allowed to openly advertise and promote those products to the public. They can still sell them, they just can’t advertise them.

This is the real solution to the problem: Take away the advertising of sodas and consumer consumption immediately plummets. It’s all the advertising that keeps the soft drink sales machine churning out disease and suffering in the name of corporate profits. Soda companies, of course, will argue that they have a Free Speech right to advertise their products even if they do promote disease. That’s an argument to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, of course. But let there be no mistake about it: The continued tolerance of soda advertising is creating a nation of diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

There will be a price to be paid for all this, and I fear it will be a price far beyond what society is able to pay. To raise a nation on sodas and processed foods is to ultimately doom that nation because failed health will ultimately lead to a failed nation. You cannot built a healthy nation upon the backs of a diseased population, and thanks to the soda companies and junk food companies, the United States of America is now a nation of diseased, diabetic, obese consumers who continue to poison themselves every single day with the dangerous chemicals found in heavily advertised food, beverage and personal care products.

If I were the health advisor for a country, I would outright ban all advertising of harmful consumer products (foods, beverages, personal care, cleaning products, etc.), and in their place I’d run public service announcements teaching people about nutrition, disease prevention, vitamin D and commonsense self-care. Within one generation, that nation would be the healthiest in the world, with the lowest rates of disease and affordable health care coverage for all.

The junk food and soda companies, of course, would go broke, and the economy would rearrange itself to open up new jobs in healthier and more productive industries rather than the “disease industries” that dominate America today.

Sugary beverages, you see, aren’t just a disease upon those who regularly consume them; they are a disease upon the very nation that threatens its economy and compromises its future.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.businessweek.com/lifesty…