The American Trial Lawyers Association

Since the start of the Iraq War, the funding of body armor and protective supplies for our troops has been deplorable. Not only have we been hit with a constant stream of reports showing that our troops are in the field with outdated equipment, but now Pete Geren, Army Secretary, has recalled more than 16,000 bullet-proof vests because they failed during tests.


This leads to two possible conclusions. The first is that our soldiers fighting overseas were given equipment that was not adequately tested before being used in the field. The second is that the Army knew that the products did not pass testing, but were shipped out anyway.


According to the story by the Associated Press, the former seems to be the case. From the LA Times:


The audit by the office of the Defense Department inspector general, not yet made public but obtained by the Associated Press, faults the Army for flawed testing procedures.


In a letter dated Jan. 27 to acting Inspector General Gordon Heddell, Geren said he did not agree that the plates had failed the testing or that soldiers were issued deficient gear. He said his opinion was backed by the Pentagon's top testing director. But Geren said he was recalling the sets as a precaution and asking that a senior Pentagon official resolve the disagreement between the Army and the inspector general's office.


Hundreds of thousands of body armor sets have been manufactured by several companies in the last seven years. Vests are standard gear for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.


The contract examined by the inspector general's office is listed in the audit only as W91CRB-04-D-0040. An Aug. 20, 2004, announcement on the Defense Department's website says a contract under that designation was awarded to Armor Works of Chandler, Ariz.


The Army bought 51,334 sets of the protective inserts under the contract for just over $57 million, according to the inspector general.

Labels: Army, Body Armor, Global Warming, Iraq, Malfunction, Recall

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released a new study with some pretty grim news about the state of our environment. According to the study, even if carbon emissions could be abruptly halted, we have reached an irreversible point in climate change, which will likely be the status quo for the next one thousand years.

The study, published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, showed that current human choices on carbon dioxide emissions are set to irreversibly change the planet. CO2 levels are irreversibly impacting climate change, which will contribute to global sea level rise and rainfall changes in certain regions.

The authors of the study emphasize that increases in CO2 that occur from 2000 to 2100 are set to "lock in" a sea level rise over the next 1,000 years. Rising sea levels would cause irreversible commitments to future changes in the geography of the Earth, since many coastal and island features would ultimately become submerged.

The study also outlined regional impacts, which include -- but are not limited to -- decreased human water supplies, increased fire frequency, ecosystem change and expanded deserts. If we do manage to decrease our carbon emissions, we're still stuck with the climate that we've created now, and the last 8 years of inaction certainly helped exacerbate the problem.

Labels: Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Global Warming

By Mike Papantonio


Last Sunday, the pastor in the church I attend prayed for Barack Obama. That pastor prayed that Obama would have the strength and wisdom to guide America. I'm certain that the majority of that congregation agreed that we should all pray for Obama's success. It made me proud to be a member of that church during that prayer.


I wish Rush Limbaugh had been there. Because the week before Limbaugh made the statement on his radio show that he hoped that Obama's efforts to pull America through these dark days would fail. His words were: “I hope Obama fails. Somebody's got to say it.” He went as far as telling his lockstep listeners that he was angry at Republicans who are pulling for Obama to succeed.


I'm pretty sure there are preachers all over this country leading congregations in prayers that make the same plea my pastor made last Sunday. And I'm comfortable knowing that the power of those prayers are much stronger than the repugnant hate talk of an aging radio host in search of a bigger audience.


It's important to consider the specifics of what Limbaugh is hoping for in Obama's failure. Eight million Americans lost their homes to foreclosure during the Bush years. Perhaps if Limbaugh could step out of his 25,000 square foot home and see the pain of a mother and father telling their children that they just lost their home, maybe then he would want Obama to succeed.


Or maybe Mr. Limbaugh could step away from his $400 million dollar job long enough to be on sight the day a factory or a bank or a restaurant closes. And maybe he could follow one of those fathers home to tell his family that he just lost his job. Maybe then he would want to pray for Obama, rather than hope Obama fails. Or what if he heard one of the closed-door conversations that takes place late at night in the privacy of a bedroom between a husband who got his last paycheck and a wife who has to figure out how she will feed her children and keep a roof over their heads? Rush Limbaugh has probably never heard one of those conversations that take place with hushed whispers … quiet conversations that take place when parents don't want to frighten their children.


It might even be a good idea for this pathetic radio demagogue to put his solid gold microphone down for a few days and spend some time with his Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity chicken-hawk crowd touring V.A. hospitals. Perhaps then Mr. Limbaugh, who himself received a military deferment, could appreciate Obama's effort to end W's Iraq disaster instead of hoping for Obama's failure.


These latest words give us a creepy picture of the real heart and soul of Mr. Limbaugh. Because as he rallies his ditto-head crowd around the hopes of failure for Obama, he is in effect hoping that all of America fails.


But last Sunday, a prayer of hope and compassion delivered by a preacher who truly cares about America made Rush sound like the petty, irrelevant demagogue that he has worked so hard to become.

Labels: air america radio, Barack Obama, democrat, Economy, failure, GoLeft.tv, GoLeftTV, manufacturing, Mike Papantonio, president, Recession, ring of fire, rush limbaugh, unemployment

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has finally admitted that they were at least a little bit deceptive in how they marketed their drug Zyprexa. Zyprexa was designed to reduce hallucinations associated with schizophrenia and bipolar mania, but evidence shows that the company marketed the drug largely off-label. After all, the market for a drug strictly used by mental patients wasn't exactly a cash cow for the company. Zyprexa is only approved for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and was being marketed for use in milder cases of bi-polar disorder and for dementia.


The admission of guilt, which is a misdemeanor with the FDA, was for the improper marketing of the drug from 1999 - 2001. In addition, the company has also agreed to pay over $1.4 billion in settlements. $615 million of that will be used to settle the criminal charges and about $800 million will be used to settle the civil investigations.


Here's some history of Eli's Zyprexa settlements from News Inferno:


In 2005, Lilly entered into an agreement in principle to settle about 8,000, or 75 percent, of the claims against the company related to Zyprexa, which involved claimants who asserted they developed diabetes-related conditions from their use of the antipsychotic. Also, atypical antipsychotic drugs, such as Zyprexa, were found to double the risk of heart failure and death, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Said Reuters, that new study raised questions about claims that atypical antipsychotics are safer than older generation antipsychotics.

Labels: Eli Lilly, Lawsuit, Marketing, Off-Label, Pharmaceutical, Settlement, Zyprexa

Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire apears on Your World with Neil Cavuto to talk about Nancy Pelosi's plan to raise taxes on the top 2 percent of Americans by repealing the Bush tax cuts.

Labels: Barack Obama, Economy, Fox News, GoLeft.tv, GoLeftTV, Mike Papantonio, NAncy Pelosi, Neil Cavuto, Recession, tax Cut, Taxes, War, Your World

As fear increases over the salmonella threat in peanut butter products, so is the list of items that the FDA is warning us to avoid. According to the FDA, jars of peanut butter are ok (for now), but products containing peanut butter paste could pose a threat.



According to news reports, the contaminated peanut butter comes from a single plant in Georgia, which is run by the Peanut Corporation of America. Stores across the country, including the retail giant Wal-Mart, are yanking products off of their shelves that could potentially pose a risk to consumers. Crackers, ice cream, cookies - any products that contain the paste are listed as a risk by the FDA.



So far, at least 6 people have died, and more than 500 have become ill from ingesting the contaminated product. At least 43 states have reported some form of illness. For more info on the story, check out MSNBC's coverage here, and the Washington Post has a great article here.

Labels: Consumer Safety, Paste, Peanut Butter, Product, Recall, Salmonella, Wal-Mart

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