How Clinton Fractured Her Elbow

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attends a meeting between US President Barack Obama and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in the Oval Office of the White House 29 June 2009 in Washington, DC.

Clinton had fell down and fractured her elbow while in a state of extreme intoxication, on her way to the White House on 17 June. Which, it is a common scenario that Clinton has had an Alcoholism problem for a number of years while on and off the job, along with her husband Bill's up the political ladder adultery problem.

As to Clinton’s last global jaunt as US Secretary of State, she was significantly intoxicated throughout her trip and suffered extreme signs of Pancreatitis, such as her visible bloating disfigurement at that time; which Pancreatitis is highly contagious and anyone that had been in contact with her, should seek their medical care provider.

100,000 Americans die of alcoholism each year, which this type of addition does affect the brain and causes not just personal problem's, increase in crime and social problems; but job related problems due to impaired judgement, with numerous health related problems due to this form of addition.

Clinton Lost the Wagon

A very ill aggressive U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd L) and Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman holds a joint press conference at the U.S. State Department, 17 June 2009 in Washington, DC.

15 July 2009

As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent bout of job absenteeism and her irrational behavior when she was at the White House recently, it is becoming more apparent that she is suffering from third stage alcoholism and as her condition deteriates, she will become much more unstable; this will not only affect her job performance, but extreme irrational behavior in every aspect in social endeavors and personal behavior such as being aggressive and grandiose can be seen and will continue too increase with uncontrollability.

Furthermore, her increase in alcohol which cause’s not just her increase in health issue’s, both mental and physical; but is more likely to foresee a much more increase in problems with the legal system.

It has been further found, that especially women and this does include those affluent in society, that has an alcohol or illegal drug problem; too eventually, as these diseases increase to be found as ‘skid row bag ladies;’ due in part to their incapacity to live normally and the ever increasing deterioration due to these particular problems.

On thing that should always be remembered about this addition as well as any type of illicit addition, is the person is prone to lying or does aggressively attack others to hide or attempt to cover-up the fact they have this particular problem; until the condition becomes so severe that they can no longer hide that they have an addition; such as alcohol.

Have Rodent Will Travel in Washington DC

US President Barack Obama greets dinners at a Five Guys restaurant before ordering lunch 29 May 2009 in Washington, DC.

Five Guys responds to Inside Edition rodent expose

15 May 2009

After a visit from Inside Edition's Rat Patrol showed mice and rodents at two Washington, D.C.-area Five Guys locations, owners of the brand have shut down the stores until the problem can be addressed.

The television show was visiting the District this week taking aim at area restaurants frequented by the Obama family. Michelle Obama had taken her staff members to lunch at one of the locations in February.

The television program said it found a pack of rats outside the back door of the Dupont Circle restaurant two nights in a row, and at the second location, on Wisconsin Ave., a mouse was observed crawling through sacks of potatoes kept inside the front window. The mouse also was observed two nights in a row.

The Black Death or the Bubonic plague, which spread rapidly mostly throughout Europe (between 1347 and 1351) from rodent fleas; after the rodents where said to have came off of docked ships down the ropes. The estimated death toll was 4 to 7 million, due to the various sources and areas of infestation. Another more common malady of today, is that especially in the United States; that rodents are high carrier's of Rabies, among other contagious problems, which can be found not just the rodents themselves; but there droppings. Which this event in history is a reminder, of how serious a rodent infestation can be on a person's health and well-being; which this problem is not just in eateries in Washington D.C., but serious health risk across the US.

In response to the program, Five Guys released a statement:

"The health and safety of our customers and employees is of primary importance at Five Guys. As such, we have three, independent, third-party, precautionary programs in place to prevent health or safety risks at all of our restaurants. Previous to being notified by Matt Meagher of Inside Edition, we did not have any indicators of rodent infestation at the (Georgetown, D.C.) nor (Dupont Circle, D.C.) locations from our store management or from our third party oversight vendors including the D.C. Health Department.

"We thank Matt Meagher and his team for sending the still photos of a mouse at the Georgetown location and of rodent activity in the dumpster outside of our Dupont location. As a result, we took the most aggressive approach and closed the locations immediately on 5/12/09 and 5/13, respectively. In addition, we scheduled an immediate appointment with our pest control vendor to further investigate the claim. We will not reopen the locations until our pest control services and the local health department reconfirm that we are rodent free.

"Prior to this incident, we proactively scheduled routine visits from independent pest control companies along with a third-party, independent food safety and quality assurance brand protection company. We also receive regular inspections from the local health departments. The first two programs mentioned were started on our own accord to act as a proactive step to protect our customers and our brand. The pest control program has been in place since the opening of the restaurants and our auditing program has been in place, system wide, for over a year. We will use this experience with Inside Edition as an opportunity to research the programs that are in place and to determine where we need to make adjustments to make them more effective."

More Americans say they have no religion

Feeling there way through faith's darkness, a country in Decline.

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. (Continued)

Commentary:

There are times, with what happens to a country; has nothing to do with a particular religion, but what is occurring within the countries society structure.

While this particular poll apparently was bias, what is not taken into account is the climbing morality decline in the US and the further collapsing infrastructure of this particular country.

As to some of the major problems in this moral decline are promiscuity, Alcoholism, illicit drug use and various high crime‘s, with complacency; which all accept the latter of crime, has brought about certain disease’s that while some are highly contagious and have no foreseeable medical cure for these disease’s (which does include embryonic stem cell research); except through prevention by moral decency. Which some of these disease’s are not just in the carrier’s themselves, but some can be transmitted to the unborn during pregnancy, to children and in many cases; to others by contact with an infected carrier.

As this pragmatic situation goes beyond mere ideological thought as one may be in question, but to have been ascertained previously; by the scientific and medical community.

Nevertheless, the US continued issue of cloning especially with the precept of future human cloning, baby abortion and child abuse for example‘s; these situation’s or problems would not be an issue within a moral society for they wouldn't occur.

As to the US alleged scientific issue on Global ‘Warming or former US Vice President Al Gore got an expensive light bulb idea, which is nothing but what is called a 'Band-Aid solution'; where the Band-Aid has blown out the car window at 70 MPH, to finally be caught and pasted to an advertisement billboard on the side of the highway.

Which the original solution for this problem, stems from ancient writing’s, not as suggested by US President Barack Obama’s atheist view point; which by the original solution has always been previously, the most sound one of stabilizing the earth.

Iron Eyes Cody AKA the "Crying Indian" was in a “Keep America Beautiful public service announcement” in the early 1970’s, concerning the severe problem of US litter and pollution; which is still occuring today. While at the time this service announcement was being advertised on television and billboard’s, the scope of Global warming and numerous other Environmental problem’s was already being put in the forefront for people not just to be conscientiously aware; but that their was already a major problem.

Finally, the US is not just having an economic collapse, they are having a full collapse in ever facet of the structure of the country itself or what is called 'full implosion' and as far as any type of integrity, it has galloped off as a cowboy; into the perplexed sunset.

Federal audit raises serious questions about Housing Authority of New Orleans

Children race home from school in the Iberville development last December. Auditors recently found poor conditions at the Iberville and B.W. Cooper housing developments, including missing or loose railings, peeling paint, sewer leaks, and a serious rat infestation.

15 December 2008
by Katy Reckdahl

A report released Friday raised serious questions about the ability of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to safeguard the tenants it assists in New Orleans and ensure that they live in decent, sanitary conditions.

According to the audit by HUD's inspector general, the federally-run Housing Authority of New Orleans hasn't properly maintained its public-housing apartments or inspected its Section 8 rentals since Hurricane Katrina. The report also found the agency may have paid too much rent for many New Orleans apartments, and that it has created a Section 8 waiting list that's virtually unusable.

HANO had "placed a higher priority on housing displaced tenants instead of ensuring that units were qualified to house those tenants," the audit said.

That's true, HUD managers said in a written response: "Considering the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the dire need to house families, HUD stands by its decision to place a priority on housing families."

The agency's seven-page reply also detailed the systems and procedures that HUD and HANO would implement in response to the audit.

HANO has been controlled by a rotating pair of HUD executives since the federal government took the reins of the failed agency in 2002. Karen Cato-Turner, HUD's current receiver in New Orleans, has overseen day-to-day operations for more than a year; Diane Johnson came to New Orleans from HUD's New Jersey offices in May to act as the sole member of HUD's board.

Between April and September, HUD auditors examined 10 random apartments with tenants who receive rental assistance through HANO's Section 8 program, also known as the Housing Choice Voucher program. All 10 of the units fell short of HUD's quality standards because of loose floorboards, inoperable stoves, leaking water and sewage, mold, peeling paint in units housing young children, missing handrails and insufficient heating.

Two-thirds of public-housing apartments also failed the random inspections. Auditors found poor conditions at the Iberville and B.W. Cooper housing developments: missing or loose railings even on second-story balconies, peeling paint, long-standing sewer leaks, and a network of tunnels along Iberville buildings' foundations indicating "a serious rat infestation."

The head of HANO's property-management department told auditors that he was short-staffed and so hadn't routinely inspected public housing in the city since Hurricane Katrina. Similarly, the annual Section 8 inspections, federally mandated by HUD, were skipped for two years because of staff shortages, HANO said.

In its written response to auditors, HANO called the Iberville development "obsolete" and noted that the B.W. Cooper units are "slated to be demolished." This is despite the fact that the agency, when asked whether the city's public housing can accommodate all returning tenants, has typically described the Cooper and Iberville units as "repaired and ready to be occupied."

The audit also found that HANO didn't have a system in place to review the local rental market to ensure it wasn't paying above-market rates for its Section 8 apartments. And the audit found HANO had miscalculated rents for nearly half of the randomly chosen Section 8 and disaster-voucher tenants. After looking at a random selection of voucher holders, auditors discovered that during March 2008 HANO had paid $3,569 rent for three vacant units, and it had overpaid $1,200 in rental assistance for two disaster-voucher tenants, problems HANO blamed on understaffing.

The agency's Section 8 waiting list, which had 9,700 names before Hurricane Katrina, was missing key federally required data. Without that critical information, such as the date of application, the agency can't pick tenants fairly from the list, the audit found.

The report concluded that "HUD's receiver did not provide adequate management oversight" to ensure that HANO complied with federal law.

According to HUD's managers, Katrina took a toll on the agency's staff, but HUD is confident the agency will be returned to local control by fiscal year 2010 and that HUD is on its way to fully restoring the agency.

"HANO's programs are back on track," they wrote.

UN: Over 12,000 cholera cases in Guinea Bissau

24 October 2008

GENEVA – The United Nations says over 12,220 people have been infected with cholera in Guinea-Bissau and 201 have died from the disease.

UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau says the outbreak of cholera in the West African nation has proven exceptionally difficult to control.

Taveau says the capital of Bissau has more than half of the cases, but the disease has spread to all provinces since it started in mid-May.

Taveau said Friday that officials fear the disease could spread further because of an election campaign expected to draw large crowds in unhygienic conditions.

U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs says the United Nations is already spending $1 million to fight the cholera outbreak.

Commentary:
As to this cholera epidemic that it usually is in the water supply, especially if wells or of this nature get’s low and in some cases stagnates; is it possible to purify the water in some manner or supply water until the contamination is resolved.

In the US at one time, American’s use to get this disease and Diphtheria, but nevertheless, it was caused when there use to be dug wells and when the water got low especially in summer; there was at times major epidemics like is being faced in Guinea-Bissau.

As to Diphtheria, some of the symptom’s do reoccur after a person has had the disease throughout the rest of there life, similar to the reoccurrence of malaria.

US: What are the candidates hiding?

23 October 2008
by Kenneth P. Vogel

In the past week, Cindy McCain released two pages of her 2007 tax return, and Joe Biden let reporters review — but not copy — 49 pages of his medical records.

But those steps did not satisfy critics, reporters and opposition researchers, who pressed for McCain’s tax schedules and the previous years’ returns for her and her husband, Republican presidential candidate John McCain. And they demanded the results of follow-up exams given to Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, after his 1988 aneurysms.

And those aren’t the only hotly sought but unreleased records that could shed light on the candidates — and the families of those candidates — who are seeking to run the country. With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, each presidential campaigns is accusing the other of withholding key documents that could answer outstanding questions about the personal and professional lives of the people at the top of the tickets, resulting in something of a transparency race subplot.

So, without further ado, here are 10 of the top missing documents from campaign 2008, in no particular order:

• Obama’s legal clients

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has boasted of his time working as a civil rights lawyer in Chicago. But the boutique law firm that employed him for parts of 11 years — now known as Miner, Barnhill & Galland — also handled matters that don’t fit under the civil rights umbrella, including contracts, real estate deals, incorporations and civil defense.

Obama, by some accounts, spent as much as 30 percent of his 3,700 billable hours on the last category.

Neither his campaign nor the firm will release a list of the cases on which he worked.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt asserted that “Sens. Obama and Biden have taken voluntary transparency steps as legislators and candidates that have allowed their constituents, the media and their political opponents to fully examine both men.”

LaBolt pointed to lists of hundreds of the firm’s clients that Obama attached to the mandatory personal financial disclosure statements he filed for each of his eight years in the Illinois state Senate.

Included on the firm’s client list was Rezmar, a development company co-owned by Obama’s disgraced former fundraiser, Tony Rezko, as well as developer William Moorehead. Moorehead was convicted of stealing more than $1 million from public housing projects he managed and developments he co-owned with Obama’s former boss, Allison S. Davis. Some of the thefts occurred while Moorehead was a client of the firm.

Obama billed between five and seven hours to Rezmar-linked projects, including incorporating nonprofits connected to the company, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Obama’s campaign declined to answer when Politico asked if he did any work for Moorehead.

• Palin’s e-mails

The electronic correspondence of Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is in high demand, not the least because she used a private e-mail account to conduct state business in what some critics claim was an effort to circumvent the state’s public record laws.

Her husband, Todd, often was copied on e-mails about state business, and a state investigation found that she allowed her husband to use state resources to try to settle a family dispute, further fueling demands that she release her electronic mail.

E-mails from her state account are subject to the state’s public records laws — and a court ruling this month seemed to indicate e-mails from private accounts also could be subject to the laws. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be easy, or inexpensive, to get.

The state of Alaska is seeking to extend a deadline for producing the e-mails until Nov. 17 — nearly two weeks after the election — asserting that it is a laborious process to identify all of the relevant emails and have lawyers determine which parts can be released.

And since the state is refusing to wave its fees — including 10 cents for each printed page of e-mails, plus $960.31 for searching each state employee’s account — the cost to each person requesting the documents could run into the thousands of dollars.

• Biden’s earmark requests

The McCain campaign has worked to make earmarks a major issue in the race, with McCain and Palin blasting Biden and Obama as free-spending earmarkers.

The two have pounced on Obama’s earmark requests, which he voluntarily released going back to his first year in the Senate and which totaled $931 million.

Palin has had to explain her own earmark requests, which totaled $750 million during her two years as governor of Alaska.

And, though McCain has boasted of never requesting “a single earmark,” he nonetheless has taken heat for seeking cash for home-state projects, albeit through more transparent legislative avenues.

That leaves Biden, a Delaware senator, as the only candidate in the quartet for whom there is no public record of earmark requests prior to fiscal year 2009.

Biden voluntarily released his earmark wish list for that year, and it comprises 116 projects with a total price tag of $342 million, including $34 million for the University of Delaware, which since 2002 has paid at least $1.5 million to a lobbying firm in which Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is a partner. The Obama campaign has said that Hunter Biden, who stopped his lobbying work last month, never lobbied his father.

• John and Cindy McCain’s taxes

After John McCain couldn’t immediately recall in an interview how many houses he and Cindy owned, the couple’s finances become an issue in the race, with Obama hammering McCain for being out of touch with regular folks’ economic concerns.

But beyond property records (which showed that Cindy McCain owns eight homes) and mandatory disclosure statements filed by John McCain (which showed that he owns relatively little, while Cindy and her children hold assets worth at least $24 million), McCain has been comparatively unforthcoming about his wealth.

McCain, who maintains separate finances from his wife, released his full tax returns for 2006 and 2007, while Cindy McCain, heiress to a beer distributorship fortune worth as much as $100 million, only released the first two pages of her returns for those years.

Biden and Palin also have released only two years worth of their tax returns, but their finances are substantially less robust than the McCain’s. In the years since it’s become de rigueur for presidential candidates to release their tax returns, only Ronald Reagan in 1980 disclosed less tax information than McCain.

Obama, by contrast, has released his returns dating back to 2000.

• Obama’s state Senate records and schedules

Obama’s Senate files became an issue after he pressed Hillary Rodham Clinton during their nomination battle to release the schedules from her eight years as first lady.

When her campaign demanded Obama release his state Senate files, he told reporters he did not “maintain a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records.” The records “could have been thrown out. I haven't been in the state Senate now for quite some time," he said.

His campaign later said that "files pertinent to ongoing casework” were passed to his successor, but Obama didn’t save correspondence with the general public, state associations or lobbyists, or memos on legislation and correspondence with Illinois state agencies. Some of the records that have surfaced have done little to dampen the demand for a more complete accounting.

For instance, Obama signed a pair of 1998 letters on his state Senate stationery urging state and Chicago officials to provide taxpayer support for a housing project headed by Davis, Obama’s former law firm boss, and Rezko, who has since been convicted on federal corruption charges.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the pair reaped $855,000 in development fees from the $14.6 million project, which was entirely funded by city, state and federal tax dollars and was four blocks beyond the border of Obama's Senate district.

• Palin’s college transcripts

Palin attended five schools in three states before graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987 with an undergraduate degree in journalism.

A high school friend who attended three of those schools with Palin told the Los Angeles Times that the future governor got straight A's, but a Palin spokeswoman declined to comment when asked by Politico if Palin would release her transcripts. The Times also reported that none of the 12 former Palin professors the newspaper interviewed remembered her.

• Obama’s Columbia thesis

Likewise, there’s not a whole lot of information available about Obama’s time at Columbia University in New York, which he attended for three years after attending Occidental College in Los Angeles for one year, and from which he graduated in 1983.

His campaign would not release his transcripts, and it says it does not have a copy of his thesis, which dealt with Soviet nuclear disarmament and which has drawn intense interest.

• All four candidates’ medical records

Biden, who had two brain surgeries in 1988 to repair separate aneurysms, is not the only candidate to be less-than-completely open when it comes to medical files.

McCain — who is 72 years old, has battled skin cancer and was tortured during five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam — put his personal physician on a conference call with reporters to attest to his good health and granted selected journalists three hours to leaf through nearly 1,200 pages of records covering eight years. But the reporters were not allowed to photocopy or remove the documents, and they were prohibited from using cell phones or e-mail for expert assistance during the review.

McCain’s steps didn’t satisfy critics, including a group of nearly 3,000 doctors who demanded a "full, public release" of the candidate’s records.

By comparison, Obama, who continues struggling to quit smoking and has a family history of cancer, has released only a one-page letter from his doctor proclaiming him in "excellent health," as well as "lean and muscular with no excess body fat."

"Palin has yet to release her records, but seemed to express a willingness to do so in a Wednesday interview with NBC’s Brian Williams."

• Obama’s small donors

Obama boasted that half of the record-breaking $605 million his campaign raised through the end of September came from small donors.

But this summer, when a coalition of eight good-government groups asked both presidential candidates to voluntarily release information on small contributors, only McCain complied, posting a list of all his donors on his website. (Federal election rules only require campaigns to report the names, addresses and occupations of donors when they have given more than $200.)

Obama’s small donors recently created headaches for his campaign, with news reports highlighting letters from the Federal Election Commission directing Obama to return contributions from people who exceeded the $4,600 individual limit by giving donations in under-$200 installments. Some were from previously undisclosed and apparently fictitious donors.

Obama said he returned the excess contributions; the FEC also asked McCain to return donations that exceeded the $4,600 individual limit.

• McCain flight records

McCain’s presidential campaign used a legal loophole to hopscotch the country in a jet owned by a Cindy McCain-controlled company, King Aviation, for cut-rate fares, according to The New York Times.

The paper reported that during a key five-month stretch when McCain was struggling to raise cash and gain traction in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, the jet, a Cessna Citation Excel, was used almost exclusively for campaign purposes. The campaign reimbursed the company substantially less than it would have cost to charter a similar jet, the report said.

McCain’s campaign continued paying King for use of the plane through the end of last month. FEC records show McCain’s payments to the company total $477,000 since the summer of 2007.

But the campaign declined to release records detailing how much it paid for specific flights, which could permit calculations about whether the campaign was paying full charter rates.

From the beginning of 2007 through May 2008, King earned $303,000 for Cindy McCain and her dependent children, according to McCain’s presidential disclosure form.

The Bridge Who Went Pink

The light rail bridge designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava is seen lit up in pink for breast cancer awareness in Jerusalem, on 6 October 2008.

One should actually be aware of not just breast cancer, but other forms of this horrendous disease and eradicate it to save lives.

I have seen numerous times the effects of different forms of cancer has on people and it is not just heartbreaking, but the fact in some cases; it was also found to have been avoidable.- HRM Deborah

Dalai Lama hospitalized after checkup in New Dehli

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, center, prepares to shake hands with an unidentified person at the Gaggal Airport in Dharamsala, India; on 6 October 2008 as he leaves for New Delhi.

9 October 2008

NEW DELHI -The Dalai Lama was hospitalized in New Delhi, his spokesman said early Friday, just days after a medical checkup cleared the Tibetan spiritual leader to resume foreign travel.

Tenzin Taklha told The Associated Press that the Dalai Lama was admitted to a New Delhi hospital for "further consultations with doctors."

Taklha declined to say when he was hospitalized or provide any details on his condition. He said he expected more information to be released later in the day.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the spiritual leader was admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the Indian capital. The hospital's duty officer Dr. Priyank Tyagi would not comment on the the report.

In August, the 73-year-old Dalai Lama was admitted to a Mumbai hospital and underwent tests for abdominal discomfort. Doctors advised him to cancel a planned trip to Europe and rest, saying he was suffering from exhaustion.

The Dalai Lama arrived in the Indian capital Monday from Dharmsala, a north Indian hill town where he set up his headquarters after fleeing Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He underwent the medical check on Tuesday and was scheduled to be back in Dharmsala on Thursday, according to information provided earlier by Chhime R. Chhoekyapa, another spokesman.

At the time, Chhoekyapa declined to say why the Dalai Lama needed another checkup less than six weeks after he was admitted to a Mumbai hospital and underwent tests for abdominal discomfort. He spent four days in Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital.

Taklha in September said that the spiritual leader was in good condition but doctors had advised him to rest as much as possible.

The Dalai Lama normally spends several months a year traveling the world to teach Buddhism and highlight the Tibetans' struggle for greater freedom in China. He was to have visited Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Germany in October.

After a March outbreak of violence in Tibet, China stepped up its campaign to vilify the Dalai Lama, blaming him for the unrest, which Beijing says was part of a campaign to split the Himalayan region from the rest of China.

The Dalai Lama has denied the allegations, saying he is only seeking greater autonomy for Tibet to protect its unique Buddhist culture.

Watchdog called lax in FEMA trailer fiasco

William Eskridge stands on the front porch of his FEMA trailer in the FEMA Diamond travel trailer park, on 22 March 2008 in Port Sulphur, Louisiana.

7 October 2008
by Bruce Alpert

WASHINGTON-A federal watchdog agency issued a flawed report that underestimated potential health risks from formaldehyde fumes in FEMA trailers and, even after being warned its findings were flawed, did nothing to stop government officials from using the report to reassure the public, according to a congressional panel.

The report by the investigations subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology criticized the performance of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's handling of health complaints about FEMA trailers deployed after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It accused the agency of demoting one of its veteran scientists because he pressed his supervisors to address the flaws in its February 2007 health assessment.

"The agency's incomplete and inadequate handling of their public health assessment, the failure to quickly and effectively correct their scientific mistakes and their reluctance to take appropriate corrective actions was all marked by notable inattention and inaction on the part of (the agency's) leadership," the report said. "As a result, tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina and Rita families living in trailers with elected levels of formaldehyde were kept in harm's way for at least one year longer than necessary."

Much of the information about the agency's testing of FEMA trailers already had come out during congressional hearings. But the report provides some additional details, and gives the next president a blueprint for wholesale changes at the agency.

In a statement, Glen Nowak, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the parent agency for the Agency for Toxic Substances, said that the subcommittee concentrated on a single study, ignoring a follow-up review and other initiatives during the past two years to assess formaldehyde levels.

But the subcommittee, in a report distributed by its Democratic staff members, said that the initial report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease, released in February 2007, considered as acceptable a level for formaldehyde exposure that might be OK for a few hours a day, but not for living space occupied, in some cases, for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It said only after a senior agency official, since demoted, complained that the report was flawed, did the agency's managers notify FEMA about possible problems with the report. But the FEMA official who received the written notification about the report's flaws put it inside his desk, without informing any other agency officials, according to the subcommittee.

The Agency for Toxic Substances waited eight months to include warnings about people living in trailers for long periods of time, and did nothing to the stop the Federal Emergency Management Agency from using its flawed initial report to tell people they were safe in the agency's trailers.

More than 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States

2 October 2008

United States -More than 1.1 million people in the United States are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), as more people are infected with the AIDS-causing virus than die from it each year.

The new estimate, published in today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, is based on reports of HIV cases from 40 states and cases of AIDS from 10 states and the District of Columbia in 2006. It is about the same as the previous estimate from 2003, which calculated that between 1 million and 1.2 million people were living with HIV.

But the 2003 estimate may have been an overstatement, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) epidemiologists write. This time, they worked with a refined statistical method that includes more reliable counts of HIV infections from more states. Prior to April of this year, not all states tracked HIV the same way, making it difficult for epidemiologists to get a handle on its national impact.

Were the new method applied to 2003, the number of people living with HIV in the U.S. that year would have been lower, about 994,000 people, the CDC scientists write today. That means that since 2003, HIV prevalence has increased by 11 percent, or 112,000 people.

A report this year by UNAIDS, the United Nations agency that tracks the disease around the world, said that an estimated 1.2 million people were living with HIV in the U.S.

Separate, improved epidemiology has shown a sobering picture of HIV before. In August, the CDC reported that it had undercounted annual, new HIV infections by 40 percent. For years, authorities said 40,000 people were infected annually. In fact, that number swung between 49,000 in the early '90s to 58,000 in the late '90s. Today, an estimated 55,000 people are infected each year.

(Image of HIV-1 budding from cultured lymphocyte/CDC)

Solving the Mystery: China's tainted milk problem

An employee removes products containing milk powder from China at a supermarket in Taipei 24 September 2008. Taiwan plans to send experts to China to examine the milk powder contamination after the self-governed island banned all mainland dairy products, the government said on Tuesday.

by HRM Deborah

In all due respect as a precautionary measure, inspect all elements of all products in China that one can, that may or has been suspected of carrying toxic chemical melamine.

To this end, find the source of how this chemical is getting into the food products and hopefully, this will cease the problem and again not only stabilize China’s food market; but for the health safety of everyone concerned.

Measles cases on increase in United States

9 September 2008

By JULIE DEARDORFF

Measles cases in the United States are rising, and parents who reject vaccination are shouldering much of the blame. Nearly half of the 131 cases so far this year involved unvaccinated children, including 25 home-schooled kids in Illinois.

Health officials worry that as vaccination rates decline, herd immunity is lost, increasing the chance of a mass disease outbreak. Some pediatricians, mean-while, are frustrated that they have to spend so much time convincing parents that vaccines such as the measles, mumps and rubella shot are safe.

Questioning in itself is not a bad thing, especially since the Internet has ignited an information explosion, some of it inaccurate. It does, however, reflect a larger crisis of confidence in public health officials and policy, which has developed partly because so many new, seemingly unnecessary vac-cines have been added to the schedule and because no one can explain what causes, how to prevent or how to treat the new childhood disorders: asthma, allergies, attention deficit disorder and autism.

The number of vaccines children receive has tripled since the early 1980s. In 1982, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recom-mended 23 doses of 7 vaccines for children up to age 6.

Today’s typical 6-year-old has had 48 doses of 12 vaccines. (Toss in the flu shot, which may or may not be effective, and it boosts the number to 69 doses of 16 vaccines by age 18.) Immunization against diseases that were once a childhood rite of passage and that conferred lifelong immunity, such as chick-enpox, is now required for public school in many states, including Illinois. And the Hepatitis B vaccine is routinely given to babies the day after they’re born, even though the illness is contracted through blood transfusions and sexual activity. Parents wonder: “Why can’t the Hep B vaccine wait?”

But what really prompted questions was the 1997 decision by the Food and Drug Administration to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from most vaccines as a precaution, due to concerns about the “theoretical potential for neurotoxicity” and the growing number of vaccines containing thimerosal on the immunization schedule.

Though no evidence of harm has been shown, a mental link to thimerosal was made, a scarlet letter on vaccines that re-mains to this day.

Several recent developments have sparked other questions about vaccines:

Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health, told CBS News that she thinks “public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the (autism-vaccine) hypothesis as irrational.”

In March, government health officials conceded that childhood vaccines aggra-vated a rare, underlying cellular disorder in 9-year-old Hannah Poling that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms.

America might be over-vaccinating its kids and health officials might want to re-evaluate and adjust the immunization sched-ule, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. But not because of health concerns; the vaccines might just be unnecessary and waste a lot of money.

A study in the journal Pediatrics found that 33 percent of pediatricians would strongly recommend the rotavirus vaccine if it were up to the doctor’s discretion. But if it becomes an “official” recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics, that number goes up to 50 percent.

Last year, a week after CDC announced that the influenza vaccine was effective against only 40 percent of the season’s flu viruses, it recommended that all children over 6 months get a flu shot.
Vaccination, considered to be one of medi-cine’s greatest achievements, is a personal decision that is often forced on people for the greater good. Parents who question vaccines are simply seeking information and advocat-ing for their children.

We have the right to question everything that goes into our children’s bodies, whether it’s food, herbs, over-the-counter medications or prescription drugs. Vaccines, which like any medical procedure carry both benefits and risks, should not be an exception.

Coming soon: 6km walkway in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park

Metropolitan invests $140,000 in new, improved walking lane, in effort to boost residents' health awareness

21 August 2008
by Navit Zomer

A new six-kilometer walkway will be inaugurated in two weeks in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park. The city's municipality is said to have invested NIS 500,000 (approx. $140,000) in the project.

The walkway will stretch from Hayarkon Bridge to Ramat Gan's Ayalon Mall; and will feature informational signs, detailing the health benefits of walking and stretch exercises, maps to help people get an indication of their location and distance markers.

Benches and drinking fountains will be built along the path as well. The City is also planning various sporting events along the new lane, as well as establishing walking groups trained by certified fitness trainers, free of charge.

Groundwork on the lane began several weeks ago is scheduled to be completed next week. Once the illustrated signs and location maps will be placed, the lanes will be, well, good to go.

The project's inauguration ceremony is said to take place on September 3, and will be attended by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Dr. Eitan Chai-Am, director of Clalit Health Services' Tel Aviv region.

"The Hayarkon Park walkway initiative is, for me, another way in the promoting health and its emphasis in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa community," said Dr. Chai-Am.

"The incorporation of physical exercise, especially walking, in a person's daily schedule is a basic element in maintaining a healthy lifestyle."

Note:
Let’s not forget to dress modestly, for the respect of others and not forgetting Allah (God) is watching.

More than 56,000 in U.S. infected with AIDS each year

People walk around the Circle of Friends at the National AIDS Memorial Grove on World Aids Day in San Francisco, California, on 1 December 2006.

By Maggie Fox

New estimates show that least 56,000 people become infected with the AIDS virus every year in the United States -- 40 percent more than previous calculations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.

The CDC stressed that actual infection rates have not risen but said better methods of measuring newly diagnosed infections and extrapolating these to the general population led to the higher estimates.

"CDC's first estimates from this system reveal that the HIV epidemic is -- and has been -- worse than previously known. Results indicate that approximately 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006," the CDC said in a statement.

"This figure is roughly 40 percent higher than CDC's former estimate of 40,000 infections per year, which was based on limited data and less precise methods."

The CDC said the epidemic has been stable since the late 1990s, "though the number of new HIV infections remains unacceptably high."

"The analysis shows that new infections peaked in the mid-1980s at approximately 130,000 infections per year and reached a low of about 50,000 in the early 1990s," it said.

Dr. Kevin Fenton, who heads the CDC's AIDS branch, said 15,000 to 18,000 Americans die every year of AIDS.

"The data really confirm that there is a severe impact of this epidemic among gay and bisexual men in the United States ... as well as black men and women," Fenton said in a telephone interview.

The numbers, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, confirm that black Americans are seven times more likely to be infected than whites.

DOING TOO LITTLE

AIDS activist groups said the numbers showed the United States is doing too little to control the epidemic.

"We need to develop programs that specifically target those most at risk, such as African Americans, Hispanics, and men who have sex with men," Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive officer of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, said in a statement.

"The reality is that it is a wake-up call for all of us," Fenton agreed. "There are things that you and I can do to stop the disease -- encourage others to use condoms consistently and correctly, abstain from sex."

Fears of being stigmatized have discouraged people from being tested -- 25 percent of those infected do not know it and can pass along the virus.

AIDS groups have been clamoring for the CDC to release its numbers, but Fenton said the CDC's numbers have been undergoing peer review -- a months-long process during which both the statistical methods and the numbers themselves have been scrutinized by experts recruited by the journal's editors.

"This improved estimate means little if it does not serve as the spark to inflame our collective anger about the deadly neglect of an acute emergency," Mark McLaurin of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project said in a statement.

"This week, President Bush signed a new global AIDS bill, but persistent underfunding and restrictions here at home tie our hands in combating the epidemic in our own backyard."

The president's Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief or PEPFAR program signed into law this week is a $48 billion, five-year package to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria around the world.

Globally, 33 million people are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and 2 million die of it each year.

Commentary

While AIDS is assessed as a huge epidemic, it has always been felt that in many cases it is the bill of payment so to speak; towards unnatural relations such as homosexuality and promiscuity; for one thing, Allah does create diseases if a situation becomes too unacceptable.

This epidemic it is sad to say, is why people should stay moral and live not just according to Allah’s laws; but the foundation, of what is acceptable towards society’s norms.

As for Bush not taking care of the people in his backyard, this is common in many facets towards the American people.

U.S.: Measles outbreak hits 129 people in 15 states

With Accusations of Foreign Travel the Cause

11 July 2008

WASHINGTON-The biggest US outbreak of measles since 1997 has sickened 127 people in 15 states, most of whom were not vaccinated against the highly contagious viral illness, federal health officials said on Wednesday.

The outbreak was driven by travellers who became infected overseas - 10 countries are implicated - then returned to the US ill and infected others, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thanks to a vaccination programme dating to 1963, measles is no longer endemic in the US, with ongoing transmission of the virus declared eliminated in 2000.

Public health officials have been stressing the importance of immunising children amid increasingly vocal vaccine opponents who object to them for religious or other reasons or because they fear the shots may cause autism or other harm.

“The primary reason for lack of vaccination is personal belief exemptions,” the CDC’s Dr Larry Pickering told a news conference arranged by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

“Until better global control is achieved, cases will continue to be imported into the US and outbreaks will persist as long as there are communities of unvaccinated people,” Pickering said.

The CDC first gave details about the current outbreak in May when there were 72 people sick in 10 states. At that time, it was the most cases since 116 in 2001.

With the total number of sick people now at 127, this is the most since 138 people in 1997 and 508 in 1996, the CDC said.

The last serious US outbreak occurred from 1989 to 1991, when 55,000 people got measles and 123 died.

No deaths have been reported in the current outbreak.

States with cases, the CDC said, include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington state, as well as Washington, D.C.

Travellers got measles in Switzerland, Palestine, Belgium, Italy, India, Germany, China, Pakistan, Russia and the Philippines, the CDC said.

Measles remains a leading cause of death among children in poor countries, killing about 250,000 people a year globally.

The disease causes fever, cough, redness and irritation of the eyes and a rash. Serious complications include encephalitis and pneumonia that can be fatal.

U.S. President Bush Discusses G8 Summit and MEM Leaders Meeting

U.S. President George W. Bush delivers remarks at the conclusion of the G-8 Summit Wednesday, July 9, 2008, in Toyako, Japan.

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 9, 2008

Windsor Hotel Toya Resort and Spa
Toyako, Japan

Video

Audio

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. We've just finished our meetings here in Japan. I would call them very productive.

Our goal was to make progress in five key areas: confronting climate change, reinforcing our commitment to a successful Doha agreement, fighting disease in Africa, ensuring that the G8 nations are accountable for their commitments, and addressing the challenges of high food and energy prices. I'm pleased to report that we've had significant success in all of them.

On climate change, I want to thank the Prime Minister for hosting today's meeting of leaders from the world's major economies. In order to address climate change, all major economies must be at the table. And that's what took place today. The G8 expressed our desire to have a -- a significant reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. We made it clear and the other nations agreed that they must also participate in an ambitious goal, with interim goals and interim plans to enable the world to successfully address climate change. And we made progress, significant progress, toward a comprehensive approach.

One way to meet objectives is to invest in technology, both at the national and international levels, both through the private and public sectors. The United States, Japan, and United Kingdom launched what's called a Clean Technology Fund, and we hope Congress funds that effort. It's a way to help developing nations afford the technologies so that they can become good stewards of the environment.

We're also taking steps to promote clean technologies by cooperating on research and development. You know, I firmly believe that we can become less dependent on oil through new technology, and obviously we're going to have to spend some money on research and development to be able to achieve that objective.

On other matters, the G8 leaders emphasized the critical importance of concluding a Doha Round. We want the world to trade freely. We want to make sure markets are open for agricultural goods and manufacturing goods and services. We also recognize that the best way to help alleviate poverty is through trade. And so we had good discussions over the past couple of days about successfully completing the Doha Round by the end of this year.

We also made some progress on alleviating sickness in Africa. The G8 committed $60 billion over five years to fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases. I'm also pleased to report the G8 leaders pledged to provide 100 million long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets by 2010 to help deal with malaria. As you know, the United States has been in the forefront of trying to help nations eradicate malaria, and the G8 nations stepped forward to support our efforts. And I appreciate that very much.

We also committed with partner nations in Africa to train new health care workers. Can't solve health care problems unless there's health care workers on the ground. And the United States is involved with that. And finally, we are working to expand our efforts to treat key neglected tropical diseases, with the goal of reaching 75 percent of victims in the most affected countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America within five years. In other words, we had a comprehensive agenda on helping those who are being affected by disease live healthy lives.

I've always believed to whom much is given much is required. The nations sitting around the table have got much, and I think we're required to help those who don't. Pledges are important. Those have been -- you know, oftentimes in the political process people talk big, but they never follow up. And so one of the key ingredients of these recent meetings was all of us need to be reminded that when we say we're going to do something, we got to do it. And so accountability is an important part of fulfilling our obligations.

We agreed to release detailed reports on our progress in meeting the commitments, breaking down our efforts, country by country, disease by disease. This, of course, will help ensure the G8 initiatives are measurable and transparent, so that we're held accountable for the promises we make.

And finally, we agreed on steps to deal with hunger and high energy prices. We agreed to meet short-term food needs by providing emergency food shipments, and increasing access to fertilizer and seeds, and encouraging other nations to eliminate their export restrictions. We also agreed on steps to relieve hunger in the longer-term, including working to double production of key food staples in several African countries, accelerating access to new agricultural technology such as new seed varieties developed through bio-technology. We're also seeking to increase the amount of food aid supplied by local producers. In other words, instead of the United States just simply giving food, we ought to be buying food from local producers so that they can develop their own agricultural industries, so to help deal with world hunger.

We also agreed that on high energy prices that we got to deal with both on the supply and demand. On the supply side, oil and production refining capacity need to be increased. And the United States needs to do its part. The Democratic leaders in Congress will not allow us to explore for oil and gas in parts of Alaska, offshore America, and now is the time for them to change their mind. We also -- I'm firmly -- believe that we can do this kind of exploration in environmentally friendly ways.

On the demand side, we agreed to take new steps to increase energy efficiency, and we agreed that fuel subsidies that artificially inflate demand should be eliminated or reduced.

In other words, this was a -- you know, a lot of meetings on important subjects, and we accomplished a lot. By protecting our environment and resisting protectionism and fighting disease and promoting development and improving the daily life for millions around the world, we serve both our interests as Americans, and we serve the interest of the world.

We've enjoyed our stay here in Japan. I want to thank the Prime Minister once again for his grand hospitality. And I appreciate you all covering this summit. Thank you very much.

END

_______

Note:

U.S. President Bush with this latest speech, has an increasing slurring of the speech and seems to have troubles focusing on the task at hand.

A Spider Monkey

Many times during U.S. President George W. Bush’s presidency, there have been numerous references of him as a monkey; which I will admit seemed harsh.

But Bush’s mannerism’s towards the delegates at the recent G8 Summit and his continuous disrespect of them, especially during the numerous photo op’s, he did come across as a monkey and many people agreed.

But what type of monkey, as one ponders there thoughts of the many varieties in the world and what finally came to mind; a Spider Monkey.

While a Spider Monkey can be quite adorable in appearance, they have the reputation of very flighty and sometime uncouth mannerisms; as well as sudden irritability.

Furthermore, theoretically in historical Philosophy, there is also a reference towards a stage of an Alcoholic; where one becomes like a monkey.

'Neglected Infections Of Poverty' In United States Disable Hundreds Of Thousands Of Americans Annually

25 June 2008

ScienceDaily-An analysis published June 25th in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases highlights that diseases very similar to those plaguing Africa, Asia, and Latin America are also occurring frequently among the poorest people in the United States, especially women and children. These diseases -- the "neglected infections of poverty" -- are caused by chronic and debilitating parasitic, bacterial, and congenital infections.

While most Americans have never heard of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), the analysis estimates that these infections occur in hundreds of thousands of poor Americans concentrated primarily in the Mississippi Delta (including post-Katrina Louisiana), Appalachia, the Mexican borderlands, and inner cities. These diseases represent a major cause of chronic disability, impaired child development, and adverse pregnancy outcomes, yet many of them are preventable.

"The fact that these neglected infections of poverty represent some of the greatest health disparities in the United States, but they remain at the bottom of the public health agenda, is a national disgrace," says Peter J. Hotez , MD, PhD, author of the analysis and President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Executive Director of Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Walter G. Ross Professor and Chair of the Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine department at George Washington University.

Hotez notes that the common features of these neglected infections include their highly disproportionate health impact on minorities and people living in poverty; their chronic, largely insidious, and disabling features; and their ability to promote poverty because of their impact on child development, pregnancy outcome, and productive capacity. He calls upon policy makers to make these infections a priority on the public health agenda.

"Control of these neglected infections is both a highly cost-effective mechanism for lifting disadvantaged populations out of poverty and consistent with our shared American values of equity and equality," Hotez says. "We need a national dialogue about these very important, but neglected conditions that afflict the poorest people in the United States. Neglected infections of poverty are understudied and not well known even by physicians and public-health experts. This lack of understanding and knowledge points to the urgent need to increase surveillance for these infections; use cost-effective existing drug control and treatment efforts; implement newborn screenings; and develop new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines for these infections."

Brazil's’ Dengue Fever Epidemic Introduction

Military to fight Dengue fever in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

24-Mar-2008

The Military are being used to tackle outbreaks of Dengue fever in Brazil.

According to Brazil's Defence Minister Nelson Jobim, the military is standing by to help the city of Rio de Janeiro deal with soaring numbers of Dengue fever cases.

Health authorities say to date there have been more than 33,000 cases of Dengue already this year which one doctor has termed as a catastrophe.

Since the beginning of the year across the state of Rio, 49 people have died from the potentially deadly fever, the vast majority of victims have been in the city itself, with hospitals struggling to cope.

Dengue fever is a disease bourne by the Aedes mosquito which causes high temperatures, headaches and muscle pain and in some forms can be a killer; there is no vaccine or drug to treat it.

Urban areas where stagnant waters prevail are an attractive breeding ground for mosquitoes.

While overall in Brazil officials say cases have fallen, in the state of Rio de Janeiro there has been a significant rise with public hospitals in the northern and western districts of the city overwhelmed by the number of patients seeking treatment.

The latest victims are reported to be a seven-month-old baby girl and a 12-year-old boy.

The idea of setting up military hospitals in areas which have been worst affected has been proposed amongst growing criticism of the authorities for their handling of the crisis.

The local doctors' union has gone so far as to urge for health officials to be charged with criminal negligence.

While Mr Jobim has not blamed any specific authority, he says there has been a "leniency in the campaign against Dengue" for which a price is now being paid.

A crisis centre is expected to be in operation shortly advising children and adolescents, who have been among the worst affected by the outbreak, to wear long trousers, socks and shoes to help prevent mosquito bites.

Easter holiday leave has also been cancelled for doctors, with hospitals now reporting more than 2,000 new cases each day.

Drug Abuse in America

For Immediate Release

Office of the Press Secretary

March 1, 2008

Audio

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today, my Administration is releasing our 2008 National Drug Control Strategy. This report lays out the methods we are using to combat drug abuse in America. And it highlights the hopeful progress we're making in the fight against addiction.

When I took office in 2001, our country was facing a troubling rate of drug abuse, particularly among young people. Throughout America, young men and women saw their dreams disrupted by the destructive cycle of addiction. So I committed our Nation to an ambitious goal: In 2002, we began efforts to cut drug use among young people by 25percent over five years.

Our strategy has three key elements. First, we are working to disrupt the supply of drugs by strengthening law enforcement and partnering with other countries to keep drugs out of the United States. Second, we're working to reduce the demand for drugs through prevention and education programs. And third, we're providing treatment options for those who've fallen prey to addiction.

These efforts have produced measurable results. Since 2001, the rate of youth drug abuse has dropped by 24 percent. Young people's use of marijuana is down by 25 percent. Their use of Ecstasy has dropped by more than 50 percent. And their use of methamphetamine has declined by 64 percent. Overall, an estimated 860,000 fewer young people in America are using drugs today than when we began these efforts.

Our drug control strategy will continue all three elements of this successful approach. It will also target a growing problem -- the abuse of prescription drugs by youth. Unfortunately, many young Americans do not understand how dangerous abusing medication can be. And in recent years, the number of Americans who have died from prescription drug overdoses has increased.

One of the factors behind this trend is the growing availability of highly addictive prescription drugs online. The Internet has brought about tremendous benefits for those who cannot easily get to a pharmacy in person. However, it has also created an opportunity for unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists to profit from addiction.

One victim of such a doctor was Ryan Haight. The young man from California was only 18 when he overdosed on pain killers that were illegally prescribed over the Internet. With only a few clicks of the mouse, Ryan was able to get a prescription from a doctor he had never met and have the pills sent to his front door. The doctor who wrote Ryan's prescription had previously served time in prison for illegally dispensing controlled substances.

We need to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. So I'm asking Congress to work with my Administration to put an end to the illegal sale of highly addictive prescription drugs on the Internet. By working together to meet this goal, we can ensure a safer future for our children.

Government action is only one part of the solution to the problem of drug abuse. Others in our society have an important role to play as well. People in the entertainment and sports industries serve as role models to millions of young Americans, and that comes with the responsibility to dispel the notion that drug abuse is glamorous and free of consequences. Teachers, pastors, and parents also have an obligation to help young people develop the character and self-respect to resist drugs. The Federal Government will continue to do its part to keep our young people safe, and I urge all Americans to do the same. Our children deserve nothing less.

Thank you for listening.