Rick Perry's Close Ties to Radical Evangelicals and Self-Proclaimed Prophets

A group of radical Christians and self-proclaimed prophets from a little-known movement called the New Apostolic Reformation have been quietly pushing for Perry. 

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Posted on August 14, 2011

AMY GOODMAN: Republican Governor Rick Perry of Texas is expected to announce Saturday he’ll be entering the presidential race. Perry will make the announcement at a conference in South Carolina organized by Erick Erickson’s  RedState.com. Perry is then scheduled to travel to New Hampshire, site of the first 2012 presidential primary, and then on to Iowa.

In 2000, Perry succeeded then-Governor George W. Bush, who resigned to become president. Perry went on to win three gubernatorial terms, in 2002, 2006 and 2010. Early Perry backers, at least presidential backers, have heralded him as being behind the so-called Texas economic miracle. This TV ad has already begun airing in Iowa.

JOBS FOR IOWA AD: What if we had a candidate for president with a real record of creating jobs, a conservative with proven leadership in tough times, the leader of a state that created more jobs in the past two years than the other 49 states combined, with no state income tax and no deficit, a decade of balanced budgets? What if we had a better option for president? We do. Rick Perry. Jobs for Iowa is responsible for the content of this advertising.

AMY GOODMAN: But many have questioned Governor Perry’s economic claims in Texas. The Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman pointed out recent economic data suggest the Texas budget gap is worse than New York’s, about as bad as California’s, not quite up to New Jersey levels.

Questions have also arisen over Governor Perry’s close ties to the radical wing of the Christian evangelical movement. On Saturday, Perry helped organize and spoke at a controversial seven-hour Christian prayer rally in Houston called "The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis."

GOV. RICK PERRY: Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government. And as a nation, we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us. And for that, we cry out for Your forgiveness.

AMY GOODMAN: Governor Perry, leading the prayer session. It drew 30,000 participants, received national press. Little attention was paid to the Christian evangelicals Perry worked with to organize the event.

The Texas Observer has just published an explosive new article titled "Rick Perry’s Army of God." It exposes how a group of radical Christians and self-proclaimed prophets from a little-known movement known as New Apostolic Reformation have been quietly pushing for Perry to run for president. The author of the article, Forrest Wilder, is a staff reporter at theTexas Observer. He’s joining us from Austin.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Forrest. Talk about this event that took place. And you were there. Describe what it was like.

FORREST WILDER: Well, the response was patterned after what’s "TheCall," and TheCall are events that are put on by a group by the same name out of Kansas City. They’re day-long events of prayer and fasting. They’re usually laced with pretty hardcore anti-abortion and anti-gay messages. There was a call recently where the leader of it, Lou Engle, called for a generation of martyrs. So, The Response, in its programming and its feel, was very similar to TheCall, and that’s largely because the folks that were organizing The Response, some of the primary organizers work for TheCall. So it was an explicitly not just Christian, but explicitly evangelical or fundamentalist-type rally—same kind of music, same sort of tone, same kind of themes that ran throughout the event, and a lot of, really, the same people that move in a certain circle on the religious right.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the people that Perry organized this event with, who they were, what they said. This was characterized in the mainstream media as very much a non-political event. You had a very different take on it.

FORREST WILDER: Well, as I write about in the article, the organizers and the endorsers of the event largely come out of what’s called the New Apostolic Reformation movement. And the founder of this movement, the sort of intellectual godfather, is a guy named Peter Wagner, and he’s termed it "the most radical change in the way of doing Christianity since the Protestant Reformation." Little bit of a grandiose statement, but it is really this movement that’s happening at the bleeding edge of evangelical Christianity in this country. And it wasn’t—it’s not really widely known, although it does have growing influence.

And I think one of the defining characteristics of it is this idea that there are modern-day prophets and apostles, that the prophets and apostles didn’t end in the Bible, and we have them now walking amongst us. And so, the leadership of the movement are self-proclaimed prophets and apostles. They hold themselves out as such, and they’re recognized as such by their followers. So this was, by and large, the set of individuals and organizations that were running The Response.

And, you know, another aspect of their sort of theology is this idea of the "Seven Mountains," and it’s a form of Christian dominionism. They’re not the only sort of tendency or movement within American Christianity that has a form of dominionism, but this one—this doctrine is kind of a little unusual. The Seven Mountains are basically the power centers of society, so government, family, media, arts and entertainment, education, and so on and so forth. And they believe that Christians, or a certain type of Christian, are to take control of the Seven Mountains and initiate, you know, godly government, biblical values, inject them into these institutions in preparation for the installation of the Kingdom of God on earth and Jesus’ return. So that’s kind of who Perry has thrown in with in this event.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to play another clip from the event. One official endorser of the Response prayer gathering was Cindy Jacobs, the self-declared Christian prophet. Earlier this year, she made headlines when she recorded a video declaring a connection between the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" and the sudden death of thousands of blackbirds in Arkansas.

CINDY JACOBS: According to biblical principles, a marriage is between a man and a woman. So, we have to say, what happens when a nation makes a decision that is against God’s principles? Well, often what happens is the nature itself will begin to talk to us. For instance, violent storms, flooding. There’s something interesting we have been watching. Let’s talk about this Arkansas pattern and say, could it be a pattern? We’re going to watch and see. But the blackbirds fell to the ground in Beebe, Arkansas. Well, the governor of Arkansas’s name is Beebe. And also, there was something put out of Arkansas called "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," by a former governor, this was proposed, Bill Clinton.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Cindy Jacobs. Who is she?

FORREST WILDER: Cindy Jacobs is sort of one of the kind of leading prophets within the movement. She’s based out of Dallas. She frequently issues these type of prophecies. And they’re taken very seriously by those who follow her and admire her. I mean, she is sort of, you know, a rock star in this sort of prophetic circuit. She endorsed—she was an endorser of The Response, although I did not see her appear on stage. She certainly didn’t say anything. I don’t know if she was actually there, though some of the other prophets and apostles were.

And some of their prophecies are very specific. I mean, she has also said that she predicted the tsunamis in Japan, and not just that, but that that happened because the Japanese hadn’t sufficiently come to Christianity, so, in essence, God was punishing them. Peter Wagner, the founder of the movement, for example, when he was in Germany in 2001, God acted through him to end mad cow disease in Germany. So they actually think that they have some supernatural abilities, at least as God works through them, to do things in what they call "the natural." The natural is basically the real world. So they—the supernatural and the natural, for them, are constantly interacting, and they’re kind of the bridge between the two.

AMY GOODMAN: Forrest Wilder, let me play another clip. It’s Governor Rick Perry speaking at The Response prayer gathering in Houston. And talk about, afterwards, the significance of Perry’s use of language.

GOV. RICK PERRY: Blow the trumpet in Zion. Declare a holy fast. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the people. Consecrate the assembly. Bring together the elders. Gather the children. Gather the mothers, nurturing their children at the breast.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Governor Rick Perry, who will be announcing for president, we expect, on Saturday. Forrest Wilder, what exactly is he saying?

FORREST WILDER: He’s reading from the Book of Joel, and it’s a part of the Bible, Old Testament, that is very important to the New Apostolic Reformation movement. In fact, the basis for The Response comes straight out of Joel chapter 2. And the fundamental idea here is that, just as in—was described in the Book of Joel, they have an agricultural collapse, they have drought, they have economic woes. They have—they’re having all sorts of problems as a society, and the solution to that is to get on one’s knees and repent to God, who, if your repentance is sufficient enough, will act and, you know, restore the natural good order of things.

There’s a lot of things actually going on in that particular clip that you played, of—one, note that people are, you know, sort of cheering, cheering it on, just this reading of Scripture, very energetically, because there’s all sorts of meaning that’s loaded up into that, into Joel and those particular verses. For example, "Blow the trumpet in Zion." This is a Christian Zionist—a phrase that’s very important to them. For example, John Hagee—he’s one of the leading Christian Zionists, he has a megachurch down in San Antonio—is very involved in, you know, sort of right-wing foreign policy stuff around Israel. That’s a verse that you hear a lot at their events, at their church services, at their political events. And it’s also a popular song. It’s kind of the main—I don’t know if it’s the name of the song, but that’s the theme that runs throughout the song, "Blow the trumpet in Zion." And it’s about—you know, it’s about the role that Israel plays in their End Times eschatology and the role that the Jews play in fulfilling biblical prophecy and ultimately the return of Christ and a thousand-year reign. So, you know—

AMY GOODMAN: We just have—we just have a minute, and I just wanted to get to Don Finto, and this fits right in with what you were talking about, also the issue, when talking about Jews, of the conversion of Jews.

FORREST WILDER: Yeah, Don Finto, he’s an evangelist who works in Israel, and his—basically what he does is try to bring Jews to Jesus. And again, this fits in with this notion that there must be a believing majority in Israel so that Jesus can come back. And so, at The Response, he was on stage basically calling for a mass conversion of Jews. And at one point he brought up a Messianic Jewish rabbi from Dallas, a guy named Marty Waldman. Waldman didn’t say anything. He was sort of there as a prop, as a signal, to sort of underscore and reinforce this idea that Jews in Israel are coming to Christ and that they will spur a global revival of Christianity, and then, ultimately, you know, start fulfilling some of the biblical prophecy for this End Times scenario that they have. That was totally missed, and I didn’t see any mention of that in the media, but it was an important thing that was happening there.

AMY GOODMAN: Forrest Wilder, we’re going to have to leave it there. Thanks so much for being with us. We’ll link to your piece in the Texas Observer, "Rick Perry’s Army of God."

Rick Perry Joins the Republican Presidential Candidate Fray

(As expected, Rick Perry has declared he will seek the Republican nomination for the 2012 Presidential Election. Here are some other informative articles about Rick Perry posted on this blog:

Why It Would Be Really Bad If Rick Perry Runs for President

Rick Perry Doubled Texas’ Debt, Claimed it was a Balanced Budget Through Accounting Gimmicks

The So-Called Texas Miracle: Smoke and Mirrors and Stampedes for Housing

Big Texas Deficit Puts Governor in Tight Spot

Top Texas Government Officials Covered Up Unsafe Radiation Levels In Texas Drinking Water

Texas officials covered up dangerously radioactive tap water for years

Deleting Jefferson: More ignorance from Gov Rick Perry re: the Texas School Board's recent whitewashing of history books

Texas Can’t Afford To Buy New Far-Right Textbooks, But Rick Perry Still Resists Federal Aid

Texas to pass bill allowing guns on college campuses

Fouling the Human Nest

BP And Halliburton Try To Buy Off Government Officials Investigating Spill

States Where the Levels of Corruption and Ideological Madness Have Gotten Beyond Embarrassing

--jef)

08.13.11
President Ricky Perry?

Sure Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin are batshit crazy. But former Democrat and 1988 Al Gore for President Texas Campaign Manager Rick Perry as a brown-shirted cadet and cheerleader at Texas A&M University... whoa!

The Texan Tribune writes:

When Rick Perry arrived at Texas A&M University in 1968, it was at the end of a summer in which Soviet troops crushed the Prague Spring, protesters at the Democratic National Convention were met by a police riot and the United States reeled from the twin assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. With its conservative culture, military tradition and focus on agriculture, few places in the U.S. might have seemed more insulated from the prevailing currents of the age... Perry was elected a yell leader — an esteemed male cheerleader who has traditional responsibilities at major athletic events — and social secretary for his class. And he was exceedingly loyal to the corps, which he credited with giving him the discipline to get an animal sciences degree — his 2.5 grade point average wasn’t high enough to go the veterinary route — and join the Air Force.

Photos Below: Rick Perry as a student and a cadet at Texas A&M University in 1972.

12 Unions Tell Dems They'll Boycott Convention in North Carolina

Saturday, August 13, 2011 by The Charlotte Observer (North carolina)
by Tim Funk and Kirsten Valle Pittman

Casting North Carolina as an anti-union bastion with "regressive policies aimed at diluting the power of workers," more than a dozen trade unions affiliated with the national AFL-CIO have told the Democratic National Committee that they will sit out the 2012 convention in Charlotte.

Charlotte, NC's Time Warner Cable Arena, site of the 2012 National Democratic Convention. Coming on the heels of some liberals' complaints that President Barack Obama is giving in to Republicans, the unions' decision is another sign that key Democratic allies are unhappy with Obama and other party leaders as they gear up for a difficult election season.

It's also a signal that anything relating to Charlotte - from its besieged hometown bank to its lack of unionized hotels - will face scrutiny as the city eases into the national spotlight.

Labor unions have long played an integral role in Democratic conventions. And some big ones, including the National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union, still plan to be active participants when the Democrats come to Charlotte in 2012.

Local and state labor leaders also are still on board. The N.C. AFL-CIO helped lobby for Charlotte to be the convention site. On Friday, a leader of the Raleigh-based labor group called the national unions' decision understandable but "shortsighted."

"I think the only way we're going to change things here is if people understand the struggles here. I'm encouraged that the Democratic Party wants to make investments here in the state," said MaryBe McMillian, secretary-treasurer of the N.C. AFL-CIO. "This convention is going to bring much-needed work for union members and thousands of unemployed North Carolinians."

With new Democratic convention rules barring donations from corporations, federal lobbyists and PACs - including those affiliated with labor unions - the Charlotte gathering already was forecast to be less reliant than past conventions on big financial support from organized labor.

Still, the decision by the national unions - representing 2.5 million workers in the building and construction trades - reflects disappointment from labor activists who Democrats count on to get union members to the polls.

"There is broad frustration with the party and all elected officials, broad frustration with the lack of a union agenda," Michael Monroe, chief of staff of the AFL-CIO's building trades division, told The Associated Press. "People are looking for outlets to express that frustration."

The decision by the building trades came after a vote by leaders of the unit's 13 affiliate unions, including the Laborers, Painters and Electrical Workers.

In a letter this week to Democratic Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the unions bemoaned the persistently high unemployment rate nationwide and the choice of Charlotte at a time when union members "face assault after assault" in Washington and in some state capitals.

"We find it troubling that the party so closely associated with basic human rights would choose a state with the lowest unionization rate in the country," Mark Ayers, president of the building trades unit, wrote Wasserman Schultz, who is also a congresswoman from Florida.

Those busy planning the Charlotte convention appeared unfazed - at least publicly - by the unions' action.

"We were proud to have the support of local labor leaders when we chose Charlotte to host the 2012 Democratic National Convention, including the N.C. AFL-CIO," Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Steve Kerrigan said in a statement. "The DNCC will continue to work closely with local and national labor leaders as we prepare for the convention next September."

That reaction was echoed by former Mecklenburg County Commissioner Dan Murrey, who now heads Charlotte's host committee.

"We've been having frequent discussions with the local labor unions and the state representatives," he said. "They've been very helpful in the planning process and ... on getting the word out to people."

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, who led Charlotte's campaign to get the convention, had no comment, deferring to party officials, said a spokesman.

There was also no comment from Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, who is leading the local fundraising campaign for the convention. "His work in this effort continues," said spokesman Tom Williams. "Any actual status on numbers will be via the election (fundraising) reports."

Despite the strong language in the unions' letter, at least one of the 13 says it is still considering whether to go.

"The Teamsters Union has not gone through our own internal decision process about the Democratic National Convention," said spokeswoman Leigh Strope.

Monroe of the AFL-CIO said the decision doesn't preclude individual members of the unions from running as delegates, and some of the unions apparently are still considering how to proceed.

But the angst could spread. The International Association of Machinists, which is not part of the building trades, said it also has decided to skip the convention after participating for decades.

"This is the union that came up with the idea for Labor Day, and this convention starts on Labor Day in a right-to-work state," said IAM spokesman Rick Sloan. "We see that as an affront to working men and women across this country."

Monroe said the unions are being careful not to use the term "boycott" because they don't want to damage Obama's re-election prospects. He said money is also a major factor, when unions are spending millions trying to beat back efforts by Republican lawmakers to diminish union rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states.

"It would be disappointing to our members to see us doing business as usual, diverting resources that we know are scarce when we should be laser-like focused on getting elected officials focused on the jobs agenda," Monroe said.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned earlier this year that unions would focus more of their energy and money shoring up local affiliates and less on boosting a single political party.

The choice of North Carolina earlier this year provoked immediate outrage among labor leaders, who said it was another indication that Democrats take union support for granted. But Democrats defended the decision, saying it's part of the party's push to win crucial swing states in the South, including a state that Obama carried in 2008.

Organized labor and Democrats had a similar squabble over the choice of Denver for the 2008 convention, where the gathering was held at the non-union Pepsi Center and the city had few unionized hotels. At one point, Teamsters President James Hoffa threatened to "blow up" the convention with picketing and protests if union issues were not worked out.

But the two sides ultimately struck a deal to staff the Pepsi Center with union employees.

Jan Schakowsky Announces New Budget Plan With Focus On Jobs

Thursday, August 11, 2011 by Huffington Post

by Jordan Howard 

 

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced on Wednesday that she will introduce a progressive-minded budget outline aimed at putting more than two million people to work.

Titled the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, the plan would cost $227 billion and would be implemented over two years. It would be financed by separate legislation introduced by Schakowsky called the Fairness in Taxation Act, which would raise taxes for Americans who earn more than $1 million and $1 billion. It would also eliminate subsidies for big oil companies while closing loopholes for corporations that send American jobs overseas.

The congresswoman said that her plan would create 2.2 million jobs and decrease the unemployment rate by 1.3 percent.

"If we want to create jobs, then create jobs," Schakowsky said in a press release. "I’m not talking about "incentivizing" companies in the hopes they’ll hire someone, or cutting taxes for the so-called job creators who have done nothing of the sort. My plan creates actual new jobs."

Schakowsky’s proposal reads more like a progressive wishlist than legislation likely to be signed into law. But it does provide a template of sorts to help Democrats frame their budget argument as lawmakers enter the high-stakes super committee negotiations.

Under her plan, the following policies would be implemented:

• The School Improvement Corps would create 400,000 construction and 250,000 maintenance jobs by funding positions created by public school districts to do needed school rehabilitation improvements.

• The Park Improvement Corps would create 100,000 jobs for youth between the ages of 16 and 25 through new funding to the Department of the Interior and the USDA Forest Service’s Public Lands Corps Act. Young people would work on conservation projects on public lands including the restoration and rehabilitation of natural, cultural, and historic resources.

• The Student Jobs Corps would create 250,000 more part-time work study jobs for eligible college students through new funding for the Federal Work Study Program.

• The Neighborhood Heroes Corps would hire 300,000 new teachers, 40,000 new police officers and 12,000 new firefighters.

• The Health Corps would hire at least 40,000 health care providers, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and health care workers to expand access in underserved rural and urban areas.

• The Child Care Corps would create 100,000 jobs in early childhood care and education through additional funding for Early Head Start.

• The Community Corps would hire 750,000 individuals to do needed work in communities, including housing rehab, weatherization, recycling, and rural conservation.

In addition, the bill would give priority to the longterm unemployed -- the so-called "99ers" who have exhausted both their state and federal unemployment benefits. Federally extended unemployment benefits are set to expire this year, even though 24 million Americans remain out of work and it takes the average worker nine months to find a new job.

“The worst deficit this country faces isn’t the budget deficit," Schakowsky said. "It’s the jobs deficit. We need to get our people and our economy moving again.”

Collateral Damage in the War on Anonymity

Friday, August 12, 2011 by Creators.com
by David Sirota

From warrantless wiretapping to ever-present surveillance cameras, our world is right now in the midst of a long war on anonymity.

In the media and political arenas, we've seen paparazzi culture famously fetishize the outing of anonymous iconoclasts, from Watergate's Deep Throat (Mark Felt) to a top CIA agent working on weapons of mass destruction (Valerie Plame). Likewise, in our communities, we now know that we are almost always being monitored in highly trafficked parks, malls, airports and stadiums -- and as Slate recently reported, we may soon have apps on all of our smartphones that let us identify random faces in a crowd.

Teeming with incognito bloggers and commenters, the Internet seemed to be the last bulwark against this trend -- a rare public space that let us broadcast opinions from the shadows. But even cyberspace will likely be exposed to the white-hot spotlight of identity, as a new campaign for disclosure now starts in earnest.

Launched in response to cyber-bullying, this campaign made headlines last month when Facebook executive Randi Zuckerberg declared that "anonymity on the Internet has to go away." Her statement echoed that of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who previously called for "true transparency and no anonymity" on the Web.

As advertising corporations always seeking new information about their users, Facebook and Google have an obvious financial stake in these positions. Regardless of these firms' particular motives, though, they set standards for the entire Internet. So when their luminaries declare war on anonymity, it's presumably a fait accompli.

Thus, the key question: Will the end of Internet anonymity be good or bad for society?

The big potential benefit of users having to attach real identities to their Internet personas is more constructive dialogue.

The downside, though, is that true whistle-blowers will lose one of their most essential tools.

Though today's journalists often grant establishment sources anonymity to attack weaker critics, anonymity's real social value is rooted in helping the powerless challenge the powerful. Think WikiLeaks, which exemplifies how online anonymity provides insiders the cover they need to publish critical information without fear of retribution. Eliminating such cover will almost certainly reduce the kind of leaks that let the public occasionally see inconvenient truths.

Encouraging civility while preserving avenues of dissent is a tough balancing act, and the core debate over whether one should have a right to anonymity in public spaces is long overdue. However, it comes with a danger -- namely, that legitimate arguments for disclosure will be expanded to justify illegitimate spying on private interactions.

If you think that's far-fetched, recall that this is precisely what happened in Congress last month, when a House committee moved forward a proposal forcing Internet service providers to keep logs of all online activity by their users.

Clearly, if it ultimately becomes law, this legislation would undermine not just anonymity in public spaces, but privacy in general. Should it succeed, we may achieve transparency, but at far too high a cost.

New Jobs Being Created Are Nearly All Low-Wage

by Tula Connell,AFL-CIO Blog

So, even as there are still 4.7 workers for every one job, the jobs that are being created are primarily low-wage—and the wages in those jobs have fallen disproportionately, according to a new report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

From the first quarter of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, the most recent data available, lower-wage occupations grew by 3.2 percent, with retail salespersons, office clerks, cashiers, food preparation workers and stock clerks topping the list. Mid-wage occupations, including paralegals, customer service representatives and machinists, grew by only 1.2 percent, while higher-wage occupations declined by 1.2 percent, which includes occupations like engineers, registered nurses and finance workers.

While overall, wages have fallen 0.6 percent since the start of the recession, lower-wage jobs have declined by 2.3 percent since the start of the recession. In mid-range occupations, wages declined by -0.9 percent while wages in higher-wage jobs actually rose by 0.9 percent.
The trend toward low pay preceded the recession. As Holly Sklar points out:

Today’s retail clerks, health aides, child care workers, restaurant workers, security guards and other minimum wage workers have $6,500 less in annual buying power than their 1968 counterparts.

Let’s see. We have employers who won’t hire unemployed workers, an historically wide wealth gap between black and Latino workers and white workers, a 9.2 percent unemployment rate with almost no job creation and the few jobs that are created don’t pay a living wage.

All this means lawmakers on Capitol Hill are focused on America’s jobs crisis, right? Right? Hello…

The Verizon Strike as the Next Wisconsin

Saturday, August 13, 2011 by Dissent Magazine

by Mark Engler

 

The picket lines are up. This past weekend 45,000 Verizon workers on the East Coast, represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), went on strike. The cause of the strike was the company’s attempts to win massive concessions from the unions. Verizon argued that the employees should give up gains they had won over many years of struggle and negotiation in previous contract fights.

As the Wall Street Journal put it, “Verizon Communications Inc. is seeking some of the biggest concessions in years from its unions.” Demands include the weakening of health-care benefits, cuts in pensions, reduced job security, and elimination of paid holidays such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This despite the fact that the company reported billions in profit last year, and that, in the words of New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse, “Verizon’s top five executives received a total of $258 million in compensation, including stock options, over the last four years.” The unions argue that Verizon has made some $20 billion in profit in the same time period, and Citizens for Tax Justice has pointed out that the company has done so while paying little to nothing in corporate income taxes.

Without a doubt, this is a conflict of national significance. As Bob Master, CWA District 1 legislative and political director, explained Wednesday in a conference call with supporters,

This is an enormously profitable company, which we believe is trying to take advantage of an anti-union environment and, in a sense, to replicate at a giant private-sector corporation what the governors of Ohio, New Jersey, and Wisconsin have been trying to do to the public sector. Our members feel very strongly that we need to draw a line here.

The parallel to Wisconsin is apt for several reasons. First, like the Republican elected officials in their attacks on unionized schoolteachers and other public employees, Verizon is taking aim at one of the last bastions of the American middle class. As a main strategy in its public relations, the company is trying to stoke resentment about the fact that the CWA and IBEW workers actually have living-wage jobs. It is hoping that “I don’t have a pension, why should they” logic will carry the day.

Accordingly, on Wednesday Verizon took out a full-page ad in the Philadelphia Inquirer suggesting that a typical employee makes $80,600 in annual pay and $42,000 in benefits. The union disputes this claim, contending that salaries are generally in the $60,000 to $77,000 range, and that benefits are less costly than the company would suggest. But, regardless, the debate over numbers misses some critical questions: What’s wrong with workers sharing in the profits of a healthy corporation? Isn’t that the way our economy is supposed to work?

(On a side note, it’s always a treat when companies plead poverty at the negotiating table and then turn around and spend big bucks on media spots, anti-union consultants, and pricey PR firms—but that’s another story.)

The fate of 45,000 middle-class jobs is a big deal for all of America. Last month, the entire U.S. economy had a net gain of only 117,000 jobs. Not only is that for the whole country, it represents a pretty decent month given the numbers from the past year. Furthermore, almost all of the new jobs now being created are low-wage. Given these realities—and the fact that concentrating all wealth in the hands of the rich is a very bad strategy for creating the kind of demand the economy needs to rebound—what happens to the Verizon workers is a matter of broad public concern.

Bob Master is right that Verizon’s aggressive bargaining stance, like Governor Scott Walker’s public-sector power grab, is the product of a political climate in which corporate interests feel they can do whatever they want to working people, and employees will have no recourse. The Verizon strike is unfortunately akin to Wisconsin in that it is a defensive battle—an effort to stop tragic rollbacks in previously established standards of fair employment.

The background for the contract dispute is that Verizon is now making most of its profits from its wireless services. While a small number of wireless technicians are involved in the strike, that part of the company is mostly non-union. In an ideal world, CWA and IBEW would be able to “bargain to organize,” balancing any concessions at the negotiating table for current union members with agreements that the company will remain truly neutral and allow workers at Verizon Wireless to make their own decision about whether or not to unionize. But this is not an ideal world. Like in Wisconsin, labor and its allies face a difficult fight merely to stave off the worst of a rabidly anti-union assault.

That said, there is a case for hope. The mass protests in Madison earlier this year gave some cause for optimism that a new type of energetic, broad-based, community-labor mobilization might become a lasting force in that state’s politics—and become a model for movements in other parts of the country. Wisconsinites’ success this week in recalling some Republican State Senators (although not as many as hoped) suggested that the struggle will be a long one, but that progressive efforts could have some real legs.

As for the strike, all those who have been wondering when working America will be fed up enough to finally stand up and fight should not sit this one out. If the Verizon strike becomes a rallying point in this country for a movement against runaway corporate power and for a fairer economy, it could have much broader implications than what contract terms are ultimately hammered out for those now walking the picket lines. That these workers are not rolling over in the face of company insistence on concessions is important and courageous. And they deserve widespread support.

***

Those on the East Coast can find a picket line to visit here.

Supporters all over the country will soon be able to “adopt a Verizon Wireless store” in their area and help to organize pickets at that location.

Finally, without even leaving your computer, you can sign the petition in support of the 45,000 CWA and IBEW workers on strike.

Can We Have Health Reform Without an Individual Mandate?

Saturday, August 13, 2011 by The Nation
Yes, It's Called 'Medicare for All'
by John Nichols

 

The essential vote on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel that ruled that the individual-coverage mandate in President Obama’s healthcare reform is unconstitutional did not come from a reactionary Republican appointed by Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.

Rather, it came from respected jurist whose two appointments to the federal bench—first as a judge for the Northern District of Georgia in 1994 and then to the 11th Circuit in 1997—were made by then-President Bill Clinton. No, Judge Frank Mays Hull is not a raging lefty, but nor is she a right-wing judicial activist. A former law clerk for Judge Elbert Parr Tuttle, who as the chief justice of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1960 to 1967 led the court in issuing a series of epic decisions on behalf of civil rights, Judge Hull has a reputation as a moderate defender of the rule of law who has earned reasonable marks for her pragmatic and decidely mainstream interpretations of the Constitution.

So why did Hull join with another member of the appeals court panel (Chief Judge Joel Dubina, an appointee of George H.W. Bush) to form the 2-1 majority that rejected the individual mandate while affirming the rest of the law? Perhaps it was because one can favor sweeping healthcare reforms—including an expansion of Medicare—while still believing that it is wrong to require Americans to buy insurance from for-profit insurance companies.

Hull telegraphed her thinking with repeated questions during June oral arguments in Atlanta regarding the case. Noting that “the panel spent a significant amount of time discussing whether the mandate is ‘severable’ from the rest of the law,” Politico pointed out that: “Hull in particular asked the federal government three times where the line should be.”

Ultimately, Hull and Dubina came to the conclusion that the individual mandate could, and should, be removed from an otherwise constitutional plan.

Why? Because, as the judges wrote in their majority decision: “This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives.”

Those of us who favor fundamental healthcare reform have always been uncomfortable with the individual mandate. So was candidate Barack Obama, who distinguished himself from Hillary Clinton (a mandate backer) by saying in a February 2008, interview: “Both of us want to provide health care to all Americans. There’s a slight difference, and her plan is a good one. But, she mandates that everybody buy health care. She’d have the government force every individual to buy insurance and I don’t have such a mandate because I don’t think the problem is that people don’t want health insurance, it’s that they can’t afford it. So, I focus more on lowering costs. This is a modest difference. But, it’s one that she’s tried to elevate, arguing that because I don’t force people to buy health care that I’m not insuring everybody. Well, if things were that easy, I could mandate everybody to buy a house, and that would solve the problem of homelessness. It doesn’t.”

Candidate Obama was right.

The individual mandate was always a bad idea. Instead of recognizing that healthcare is a right, the members of Congress and the Obama administration who cobbled together the healthcare reform plan created a mandate that maintains the abuses and the expenses of for-profit insurance companies—and actually rewards those insurance companies with a guarantee of federal money.

Those who think that the for-profit (or even not-for-profit) insurance industry has to control any healthcare reform initiative have every right to be upset with the 11th Circuit’s ruling—which almost certainly will send the case of the Obama healthcare plan to the US Supreme Court.
But those of us who have no desire to perpetuate the insurance industry can and should recognize that the proper—and entirely constitutional—reform is an expansion of Medicare to cover all Americans.

There is no question that Medicare is a sound and popular program. (Just ask House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, who took an epic political beating when he proposed a scheme to replace the successful single-payer system with a voucher scheme designed to enrich insurance firms.)

While Medicare is exceptionally popular, polling shows that the individual mandate is not—according to recent surveys, roughly 60 percent of Americans oppose it.
It also passes constitutional muster.

As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich notes: [No] federal judge has struck down Social Security or Medicare as being an unconstitutional requirement that Americans buy something. Social Security and Medicare aren’t broccoli or asparagus. They’re as American as hot dogs and apple pie.”

“So if the individual mandate to buy private health insurance gets struck down by the Supreme Court or killed off by Congress, “ says Reich, “I’d recommend President Obama immediately propose what he should have proposed in the beginning — universal health care based on Medicare for all, financed by payroll taxes.”

The insurance companies would, of course, scream.

But let them complain.

Americans don’t need mandates. They need healthcare.

And they have every right to ask, as activists with Physicians for a National Health Program have,  that Medicare be expanded to cover all Americans —affordably, efficiently, capably and constitutionally.

Fukushima Daiichi Reactors Were in Meltdown After Earthquake, But Before Tsunami

TEPCO's Darkest Secret 
By DAVID McNEILL and JAKE ADELSTEIN

It is one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis: How much damage did the March 11 earthquake do to the Fukushima Daiichi reactors before the tsunami hit?  The stakes are high: If the quake structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan will have to be reviewed and possibly shut down.  With virtually all of Japan’s 54 reactors either offline or scheduled for shutdown by next April, the issue of structural safety looms over the decision to restart every one in the months and years after.

The key question for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) and its regulators to answer is this: How much damage was inflicted on the Daiichi plant before the first tsunami reached the plant roughly 40 minutes after the earthquake?  TEPCO and the Japanese government are hardly reliable adjudicators in this controversy. “There has been no meltdown,” top government spokesman Edano Yukio famously repeated in the days after March 11.  “It was an unforeseeable disaster,” Tepco’s then President Shimizu Masataka improbably said later.  As we now know, meltdown was already occurring even as Edano spoke.  And far from being unforeseeable, the disaster had been repeatedly forewarned.

Throughout the months of lies and misinformation, one story has stuck: “The earthquake knocked out the plant’s electric power, halting cooling to its six reactors.  The tsunami – a unique, one-off event - then washed out the plant’s back-up generators, shutting down all cooling and starting the chain of events that would cause the world’s first triple meltdown.  That line has now become gospel at TEPCO. “We had no idea that a tsunami was coming,” said Murata Yasuki, head of public relations for the now ruined facility.  “It came completely out of the blue” (nemimi ni mizu datta).  Safety checks have since focused heavily on future damage from tsunamis.But what if recirculation pipes and cooling pipes burst, snapped, leaked, and broke completely after the earthquake -- before the tidal wave reached the facilities and before the electricity went out? This would surprise few people familiar with the nearly 40-year-old reactor one, the grandfather of the nuclear reactors still operating in Japan.

Problems with the fractured, deteriorating, poorly repaired pipes and the cooling system had been pointed out for years. In 2002, whistleblower allegations that TEPCO had deliberately falsified safety records came to light and the company was forced to shut down all of its reactors and inspect them, including the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant.  Sugaoka Kei, a General Electric on-site inspector first notified Japan’s nuclear watchdog, Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) in June of 2000.  The government of Japan took two years to address the problem, then colluded in covering it up -- and gave the name of the whistleblower to TEPCO.

In September 2002, TEPCO admitted covering up data about cracks in critical circulation pipes in addition to previously revealed falsifications. In their analysis of the cover-up, The Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center writes:

“The records that were covered up had to do with cracks in parts of the reactor known as recirculation pipes.  These pipes are there to siphon off heat from the reactor. If these pipes were to fracture, it would result in a serious accident in which coolant leaks out. From the perspective of safety, these are highly important pieces of equipment. Cracks were found in the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, reactor one, reactor two, reactor three, reactor four, reactor five.”

The cracks in the pipes were not due to earthquake damage; they came from the simple wear and tear of long-term usage.  On March 2, 2011, nine days before the meltdown, the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) warned TEPCO of its failure to inspect critical pieces of plant equipment, including the recirculation pumps. TEPCO was ordered to make the inspections, perform repairs if needed and report to NISA on June 2nd. It does not appear that the report has been filed as of this time.

The problems were not only with the piping. Gas tanks at the site also exploded after the earthquake. The outside of the reactor building suffered structural damage. There was no one really qualified to assess the radioactive leakage because, as NISA admits, after the accident all the on-site inspectors fled.  And the quake and tsunami broke most of the monitoring equipment so there was little information available on radiation afterwards.

The authors have spoken to several workers at the plant. Each recites the same story: Serious damage to piping and at least one of the reactors before the tsunami hit. All have requested anonymity because they are still working at or connected with the stricken plant.  Worker A, a 27-year-old maintenance engineer who was at the Fukushima complex on March 11, recalls hissing, leaking pipes.

“I personally saw pipes that had come apart and I assume that there were many more that had been broken throughout the plant.  There’s no doubt that the earthquake did a lot of damage inside the plant. There were definitely leaking pipes, but we don’t know which pipes – that has to be investigated. I also saw that part of the wall of the turbine building for reactor one had come away.  That crack might have affected the reactor.” 

The walls of the reactor are quite fragile, he notes.

“If the walls are too rigid, they can crack under the slightest pressure from inside so they have to be breakable because if the pressure is kept inside and there is a buildup of pressure, it can damage the equipment inside the walls. So it needs to be allowed to escape.  It’s designed to give during a crisis, if not it could be worse – that might be shocking to others, but to us it’s common sense.”

WORKER B, a technician in his late thirties who was also on site at the time of the earthquake recalls what happened.

“It felt like the earthquake hit in two waves, the first impact was so intense you could see the building shaping, the pipes buckling, and within minutes, I saw pipes bursting. Some fell off the wall. Others snapped. I’m pretty sure that some of the oxygen tanks stored on site had exploded but I didn’t see for myself.  Someone yelled that we all needed to evacuate. I was severely alarmed because as I was leaving I was told, and I could see, that several pipes had cracked open, including what I believe were cold water supply pipes. That would mean that coolant couldn’t get to the reactor core. If you can’t get sufficient coolant to the core, it melts down. You don’t have to be a nuclear scientist to figure that out.”

As he was heading to his car, he could see that the walls of the reactor one building itself had already started to collapse. “There were holes in them. In the first few minutes, no one was thinking about a tsunami. We were thinking about survival.”

Worker C was coming into work late when the earthquake hit.

“I was in a building nearby when the earthquake shook. After the second shockwave hit, I heard a loud explosion. I looked out the window and I could see white smoke coming from reactor one. I thought to myself, ‘this is the end.’”

When the worker got to the office five to fifteen minutes later the supervisor immediately ordered everyone to evacuate, explaining, “there’s been an explosion of some gas tanks in reactor one, probably the oxygen tanks. In addition to this there has been some structural damage, pipes have burst, meltdown is possible. Please take shelter immediately.” (It should be noted that several explosions occurred at Daiichi even after the March 11th earthquake, one of which TEPCO stated, “was probably due to a gas tank left behind in the debris”.)

As the employees prepared to leave, the tsunami warning came. Many of them fled to the top floor of a building near the site and waited to be rescued.

The suspicion that the quake caused severe damage to the reactors is strengthened by reports that radiation leaked from the plant minutes later.  Bloomberg has reported that a radiation alarm went off at the plant before the tsunami hit on March 11.  The news agency says that one of the few monitoring posts left working, on the perimeter of the plant “about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from the No. 1 reactor went off at 3:29 p.m., minutes before the station was overwhelmed by the tsunami.”

The reason for official reluctance to admit that the earthquake did direct structural damage to reactor one is obvious.   Onda Katsunobu, author of TEPCO: The Dark Empire who sounded the alarm about the firm in his book (2007) explains it this way:

“If TEPCO and the government of Japan admit an earthquake can do direct damage to the reactor, this raises suspicions about the safety of every reactor they run. They are using a number of antiquated reactors that have the same systemic problems, the same wear and tear on the piping.”  

Kikuchi Yoichi, a former GE engineer who helped build the Fukushima nuclear power plant says unequivocally that, "the earthquake caused the meltdown not the tsunami.”  In his recent book Why I’m Against the Nuclear Plants I Helped Build), he explains that poorly maintained water pipes and circulation system failure were the cause of the triple meltdown. Kikuchi in his book writes (p. 51)

 “At Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, at first the plan was to use the water coffin approach. In other words, to fill the containment vessels with water and cool down the pressure vessel and ensure a safe and stable state. However, once (TEPCO) understood that the containment vessels  had been damaged, they gave up this plan. Because water was probably leaking all over the place from the pipes, from the start this was an unreasonable scenario.”

Tanaka Mitsuhiko, a former nuclear power plant designer and science writer asserts that at least the Number One reactor melted down as a result of the earthquake damage.  He describes it as a loss of coolant accident (LOCA).

"The data that TEPCO has made public shows a huge loss of coolant within the first few hours of the earthquake. It can't be accounted for by the loss of electrical power. There was already so much damage to the cooling system that a meltdown was inevitable long before the tsunami arrived."

He says the released data shows that at 14:52 on March 11, before the tsunami had arrived, the emergency circulation equipment of both the A and B systems automatically started up. "This only happens when there is a loss of coolant."  Between 15:04 and 15:11 the water sprayer inside the containment vessel was turned on. Tanaka says that it is an emergency measure only done when other cooling systems have failed.

By the time the tsunami arrived and knocked out all the electrical systems, circa 15:37, the plant was already on its way to melting down.

Tanaka believes that a fault in the Mark I reactor, the same type as the number one reactor, was another contributing factor to the meltdown. On November 5, 1987, NISA began an evaluation of the Mark 1 reactors to consider how much stress they could take before a LOCA would occur. The results of that evaluation have not been made public.

There are currently ten remaining Mark type reactors in Japan, according to Tanaka's research. He believes that each one is the equivalent of a ticking time bomb. 

Sugaoka Kei, who conducted on-sight inspections at the Fukushima plant, was the man who first blew the whistle on TEPCO’s data tampering with critical machinery. He says that he wasn’t surprised that a meltdown took place after the earthquake. He sent the Japanese government a letter dated June 28, 2000 warning them of the problems there. It took the Japanese government almost two years to act on that warning.

Sugaoka asserts in his letter that TEPCO left in place and continued to operate a severely damaged steam dryer in the plant even ten years after he pointed out the problem. The steam dryer had never been properly installed and was 180 degrees out of place. Sugaoka states, “It wasn’t a surprise that a nuclear accident happened there. I always thought it was just a matter of time. This is one of those times in my life when I’m not happy I was right.”

Worker A says there were “probably pieces of equipment on site that had never been checked.”

“Let’s say you have a refrigerator – the manufacturer recommends it be checked every ten years.  But it’s surrounded by many other kinds of equipment in the plant, all with different requirements for checking.  So if the refrigerator check is missed, it will be another 10 years before it is done.  Sometimes checks might not happen for decades.  In a strong earthquake, that equipment could fail.  That’s TEPCO’s responsibility. They’re supposed to make the schedule.” 

Onda Katsunobu says,

“I’ve spent decades researching TEPCO and its nuclear power plants and what I’ve found, and what government reports confirm, is that the nuclear reactors are only as strong as their weakest links, and those links are the pipes.”

During his research, Onda spoke with several engineers who worked at the TEPCO plants. One told him that often piping would not match up the way it should according to the blueprints. 

In that case, the only solution was to use heavy machinery to pull the pipes close enough together to weld them shut. Inspection of piping was often cursory and the backs of the pipes, which were hard to reach, were often ignored.  Since the inspections themselves were generally cursory and done by visual checks, it was easy to ignore them. Repair jobs were rushed; no one wanted to be exposed to nuclear radiation longer than necessary.

Onda adds, “When I first visited the Fukushima Power Plant it was a web of pipes. Pipes on the wall, on the ceiling, on the ground. You’d have to walk over them, duck under them—sometimes you’d bump your head on them. It was like a maze of pipes inside.”

It’s not very difficult to explain what happened at reactor one and perhaps the other reactors as well, Onda believes.

“The pipes, which regulate the heat of the reactor and carry coolant are the veins and arteries of a nuclear power plant; the core is the heart. If the pipes burst, vital components don’t reach the heart and thus you have a heart attack, in nuclear terms: meltdown. In simpler terms, you can’t cool a reactor core if the pipes carrying the coolant and regulating the heat rupture—it doesn’t get to the core.”

Hasuike Touru, a TEPCO employee from 1977 until 2009 and former general safety manager of the Fukushima plant, also says:

“The emergency plans for a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant had no mention of using sea-water to cool the core. To pump seawater into the core is to destroy the reactor. The only reason you’d do that is that no other water or coolant was available.”

Before dawn on the 12th, the water levels at the reactor began to plummet and the radiation began rising. Meltdown was taking place. The TEPCO Press release on March 12 just after 4 a.m. states: “The pressure within the containment vessel is high but stable.” There was one note buried in the release that many people missed. “The emergency water circulation system was cooling the steam within the core; it has ceased to function.”

According to the daily Chunichi Shinbun and other sources, a few hours after the earthquake, extremely high levels of radiation were recorded within the reactor one building. The level of contamination was so high that a single day exposed to it would be fatal. The water levels of the reactor were already sinking. 6 hours and 20 minutes after the earthquake on March 11th at 9:08 the radiation level was 0.8 mSv every ten seconds. In other words, if you spent 20 minutes exposed to those radiation levels you would exceed the five-year limit for a nuclear reactor worker in Japan.

At 9:51 pm, under CEO orders, the inside of the reactor building was declared a no-entry zone.  Around 11 pm, radiation levels for the inside of the turbine building, which was next door to the reactor reached levels of 0.5 to 1.2 mSv per hour.

The meltdown was already underway.

Oddly enough, while TEPCO later insisted that the cause of the meltdown was the tsunami knocking out emergency power systems, at the 7:47 pm TEPCO press conference the same day, the spokesman, in response to questions from the press about the cooling systems, stated that the emergency water circulation equipment and reactor core isolation time cooling systems would work even without electricity.  The emergency water circulation system (IC) did in fact start working before the power loss and continue working after the power was lost as well.

Sometime between 4 and 6 am, on May 12, Yoshida Masao, the plant manager decided it was time to pump seawater into the reactor core and notified TEPCO. Seawater was not pumped in until hours after a hydrogen explosion occurred, roughly 8:00 pm that day. By then, it was probably already too late.

On May 15, TEPCO went some way toward admitting at least some of these claims in a report called “Reactor Core Status of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit One.”  The report said there was pre-tsunami damage to key facilities including pipes.  “This means that assurances from the industry in Japan and overseas that the reactors were robust is now blown apart,” said Shaun Burnie, an independent nuclear waste consultant. “It raises fundamental questions on all reactors in high seismic risk areas.”

As Burnie points out, TEPCO also admitted massive fuel melt --16 hours after loss of coolant, and 7-8 hours before the explosion in unit 1.  “Since they must have known all this -- their decision to flood with massive water volumes would guarantee massive additional contamination - including leaks to the ocean.”

No one knows exactly how much damage was done to the plant by the quake, or if this damage alone would account for the meltdown. However, eyewitness testimony and TEPCO’S own data indicates that the damage was significant. All of this despite the fact that shaking experienced at the plant during the quake was within it’s approved design specifications. Says Hasuike:

“What really happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to cause a meltdown? 

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the government of Japan have provided many explanations. They don’t make sense. The one thing they haven’t provided is the truth. It’s time that they did.”

The Wonder Drug of the 21st Century?

Cannabidiol
Schaffer Library of Drug Policy

The traditional use of Cannabis as an analgesic, anti-asthmatic, and anti-rheumatic drug is well established. This British study also suggests that cultivation of Cannabis plants rich in Cannabidiol (CBD) and other phenolic substances would be useful not only as fiber producing plants but also for medicinal purposes in the treatment of certain inflammatory disorders. CBD was found to be more effective than aspirin as an anti-inflammatory agent. "Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Activity of Constituents of Cannabis Sativa L.," E.A. Formukong, A.T. Evans, and F.J. Evans, Inflammation, Vol. 4, 1988, pp. 361-371.

Cannabidiol, CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid of Marijuana, was given to 5 patients with dystonia disorders. Improvement occurred in all 5 patients by 20-50%. "Open Label Evaluation of Cannabidiol in Dystonic Movement Disorders," Consroe, et al, International Journal of Neuroscience, 1986, Vol. 30, pp.277-282.

Three patients with Huntington's Disease who had been previously unresponsive to therapy with neuroleptics, were given Cannabidiol, (CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid of Marijuana. After the second week improvement in choreic movement occurred by 20-40%. Except for transient, mild hypo-tension no side effects were recorded."Effects of Cannabidiol in Huntington's Disease," Sandyk, Consroe, Stern, and Snider, Neurology, 36 (Suppl. 1) April, 1986, p.342.

In this Brazilian study of 8 Epileptic patients receiving Cannabidiol, (CBD), 4 were free of convulsions, 3 had partial improvement, and 1 was unchanged. No serious side effects were found. This is quite important, as complex partial seizures with secondary generalization are difficult to treat with currently used drugs. The potential use of CBD as an anti-epileptic drug and its possible potentiating effect on other drugs are discussed. "Chronic Administration of Cannabidiol to Healthy Volunteers and Epileptic Patients," Pharmacology, 21: 1980, J.M. Cunha, et al, pp.175-185.

Subjects receiving 160 mg. Cannabidiol reported having slept significantly more than those receiving placebo; seven out of eight epileptics receiving Cannabidiol had improvement of their disease state. (Brazil) "Hypnotic and Antiepileptic Effects of Cannabidiol," Carlini, E.A., and Cunha, J.A., Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 1981: 21: pp. 417S-427S.

Three patients with TS who experienced incomplete responses to conventional anti-TS drugs but noted a significant amelioration of symptoms when smoking marijuana. The effects of marijuana on TS may be related to its anxiety-reducing properties, although a more specific antidyskinetic effect cannot be excluded. Eliminating the psychoactive properties of marijuana while retaining the antidyskinetic effects (Cannabidiol) could prove beneficial. "Marijuana and Tourette's Syndrome," (letter), Sandyk and Awerbuch, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Vol. 8, No. 6, Dec. 1988, pp.444-5.

"Anti-dyskinetic effects of cannabidiol," Conti, L.H., Johannesen, J., Musty, R.E., Consroe, P., Proceedings of the International Congress on Marijuana. 1987: 21. Melbourne, Australia.

This Brazilian study Investigates the possible anti-psychotic activity of CBD by studying the effect of this cannabinoid on animal models used in research with potential anti-psychotic properties. CBD seems to compare favorably with haloperidol as an anti-psychotic. "Effects of CBD in animal models predictive of anti-psychotic activity," Zuardi, A.W., Rodrigues, J.A., Cunha, J.M., Psychopharmacology 1991: 104: pp. 260-264.

CBD blocks some of the effects of THC in mice but potentiates some other effects. (Brazil)"Pharmacological Interaction between Cannabidiol and Tetrahydrocannabinol," Karniol, I.G., Carlini, E.A., Psychopharmacologia 1973: 33: pp. 53-70.

CBD was effective in blocking most of the effects of THC, increased pulse rate, disturbed time tasks, and psychological reactions. CBD also decreased the anxiety components of THC. (Brazil) "Cannabidiol Interferes with the effects of Tetrahydrocannabinol in Man," Karniol, I.G., Shirakawa, I., Kasinski, N., Pfeferman, A., Carlini, E.A., European Journal of Pharmacology 1974: 28: pp. 172-177.

One of the first studies that clearly shows that hemp grown for fiber is very low in THC, the psychoactive component that gets people high. The drug-type marijuana is very high in THC. Cannabidiol (CBD) which is not psychoactive, is very high in fiber-type hemp but low in drug-type marijuana. This is important as CBD is known to block the effects of THC.

This makes the hemp doubly useless for drug effects. "Chemistry of Marijuana," Coy Waller. Pharmacological Reviews, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1971.

Wild 'marijuana' growing in Riley County Kansas was found to be very low in THC content. (Below the European threshold for fiber hemp.) The leaves and flowering tops averaged from 0.01-0.49% THC with a mean of 0.14% THC. CBD which blocks the psychoactive effects of THC was as high as 1.7%. "Seasonal Fluctuations in Cannabinoid Content of Kansas Marijuana," R.P. Latta, and B.J. Eaton. Economic Botany, 29: April-June, 1975, pp. 153-163.

Researchers for the Canadian Department of Agriculture tested over 350 varieties of Cannabis in Ottawa, Ontario. They determined that there were two basic types of Cannabis based on genetic characteristics: a drug-type which originates in hot climates such as India and is high in THC but low in CBD and a fiber-type which originates in temperate climates and is low in THC but high in CBD and is used industrially for fiber and food. This awareness of the separateness of the two phenotypes has vast agronomic potential. It means fiber hemp can be grown without the drug effect of 'marijuana.'"The Evolution of Cannabinoid Phenotypes in Cannabis," Ernest Small, H.D. Beckstead, and Allan Chan, Economic Botany, 29: 1975, pp. 219-232.

Ten mg. of THC is required to get a psychoactive effect from 'marijuana.' It would require 50-100 cigarettes of the French hemp cultivated for paper to get a psychoactive high. "Paper-making type of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) cultivated in France: Constituents compared to those of marijuana," Fournier and Paris, (French) Plantes Medicinales et Phytotherapie, Vol. 13(2) April, 1979, pp. 116-121.

++++++

What is Cannabidiol?

Cannabidiol, also known as CBD, is a cannabinoid found in Cannabis. It is a major constituent of the plant, representing up to 40% in its extracts.
CBD alone is not intoxicating, but displayed sedative effects in animal tests. It may decrease the rate of THC clearance from the body, perhaps by interfering with the metabolism of THC in the liver. CBD does not appear to affect either the CB₁ or CB₂ receptors. Some research, however, indicates that CBD can increase alertness.
Medically, it appears to relieve convulsion, inflammation, anxiety, and nausea, and to inhibit cancer cell growth. Recent studies have shown cannabidiol to be as effective as atypical antipsychotics in treating schizophrenia. In November 2007 it was reported that CBD reduces growth of aggressive human breast cancer cells in vitro and reduces their invasiveness. It thus represents the first non-toxic exogenous agent that can lead to down-regulation of tumor aggressiveness. It is also a neuroprotectiveantioxidant.
(Wikipedia)

Marijuana Facts and Resources:

• Cannabidiol, Antioxidants, and Diuretics in Reversing Binge Ethanol-Induced Neurotoxicity
  “This study provides the first demonstration of CBD as an in vivo neuroprotectant and shows the efficacy of lipophilic antioxidants in preventing binge ethanol-induced brain injury.”
  
• Cannabinol delays symptom onset
  “We found that this treatment significantly delays disease onset by more than two weeks while survival was not affected.”
• Cannabidiol is an oral anti-arthritic therapeutic in murine collagen-induced arthritis
  “In the present study, we report that CBD has a beneficial therapeutic action on established CIA, and we explore its mode of action.”
• Cannabidiol inhibits tumour growth in leukaemia and breast cancer
  “These observations are supported by investigations of US scientists who found out that exposure of leukaemia cells to CBD led to a reduction in cell viability and induction of apoptosis. In living animals CBD caused a reduction in number of leukaemia cells. The scientists noted that CBD “may be a novel and highly selective treatment for leukemia.”
• Anti-tumor effects of cannabidiol
  “Concluding, the non-psychoactive CBD was able to produce a significant antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo, thus suggesting a possible application of CBD as an antineoplastic agent.”
• Cannabidiol triggers caspase activation and oxidative stress in human glioma cells.
  “Thus, we found a different sensitivity to the anti-proliferative effect of CBD in human glioma cells and non-transformed cells that appears closely related to a selective ability of CBD in inducing ROS production and caspase activation in tumor cells.”
• Cannabidiol-Induced Apoptosis in Human Leukemia Cells
  “Together, the results from this study reveal that cannabidiol, acting through CB2 and regulation of Nox4 and p22^phox expression, may be a novel and highly selective treatment for leukemia.”
• Cannabidiol lowers incidence of diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice
  “Our results indicate that CBD can inhibit and delay destructive insulitis and inflammatory Th1-associated cytokine production in NOD mice resulting in a decreased incidence of diabetes possibly through an immunomodulatory mechanism shifting the immune response from Th1 to Th2 dominance.”
• Neuroprotective and Blood-Retinal Barrier-Preserving Effects of Cannabidiol
  “These results demonstrate that CBD treatment reduces neurotoxicity, inflammation, and BRB breakdown in diabetic animals through activities that may involve inhibition of p38 MAP kinase.”
• Evaluation of cannabidiol in dystonic movement disorders
  “20-50% improvement of dystonia; deterioration of tremor and hypokinesia in 2 patients with Parkinson’s disease”
• Cannabidiol in dystonic movement disorders.
  “Cannabidiol (CBD) reduced dystonic movements”
• Beneficial and adverse effects of cannabidiol in a Parkinson patient
  Study showing an improvement of dyskinesia
• Treatment of Meige’s syndrome with cannabidiol.
  “50% improvement in spasm severity and frequency”
• Cannabidiol to Healthy Volunteers and Epileptic Patients
  “The clinical condition of 7 placebo patients remained unchanged whereas the condition of 1 patient clearly improved. The potential use of CBD as an antiepileptic drug and its possible potentiating effect on other antiepileptic drugs are discussed.”
• Chronic administration of cannabidiol to healthy volunteers and epileptic patients.
  “4 of the 8 CBD subjects remained almost free of convulsive crises and 3 other patients demonstrated partial improvement”
• Neuroprotective effect of (-)Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol
  “The neuroprotection by THC and CBD was because of attenuation of peroxynitrite. The effect of THC was in part mediated by the cannabinoid receptor CB1. These results suggest the potential use of CBD as a novel topical therapy for the treatment of glaucoma.”
• Effects of Cannabidiol in Huntington’s Disease
  “The patients;, aged 30 to 56, had HD of 7 to 12 years’ duration. Their condition has been slowly progressive and unresponsive to prior therapy with neuroleptics. Orally administered CBD was initiated at 300 mg/d and increased 1 week later to 600 mg/d for the next 3 weeks. Mild improvement ( 5 to 15%) in the choreic movements was documented using the tongueprotrusion test…”
• Cannabidiol has a cerebroprotective action
  “Cannbidiol provides potent and long-lasting neuroprotection through an anti-inflammatory CB(1) receptor-independent mechanism, suggesting that cannabidiol will have a palliative action and open new therapeutic possibilities for treating cerebrovascular disorders.”
• Cannabidiol as an antipsychotic
  “CBD was as effective as amisulpride, a standard antipsychotic”
• Cannabidiol May be Effective in Preventing Bovine Spongiforme Enzephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease)
  “According to basic research of scientists of the National Centre for Scientific Research in Valbonne, France, cannabidiol (CBD) may prevent the development of prion diseases, the most known being BSE (bovine spongiforme enzephalopathy), which is often called mad cow disease.”
• Cannabidiol, extracted from Cannabis sativa, selectively inhibits inflammatory hypermotility in mice.
  “Cannabidiol selectively reduces croton oil-induced hypermotility in mice in vivo and this effect involves cannabinoid CB(1) receptors and FAAH. In view of its low toxicity in humans, cannabidiol may represent a good candidate to normalize motility in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.”
• Cannabidiol, a Cannabis sativa constituent, as an antipsychotic drug
  “The results of two studies on healthy volunteers using perception of binocular depth inversion and ketamine-induced psychotic symptoms supported the proposal of the antipsychotic-like properties of CBD. In addition, open case reports of schizophrenic patients treated with CBD and a preliminary report of a controlled clinical trial comparing CBD with an atypical antipsychotic drug have confirmed that this cannabinoid can be a safe and well-tolerated alternative treatment for schizophrenia.”
• Composition of the essential oils and extracts of two populations of Cannabis sativa L. ssp. spontanea from Austria
  “The essential oil and the solvent extract of two populations of Cannabis sativa L. ssp. spontanea growing wild in Austria were analyzed comparatively.”
• Cannabidiol as an antipsychotic. A double-blind, controlled clinical trial on cannabidiol vs. amisulpride in acute schizophrenia.
  “Cannabidiol significantly reduced psychopathological symptoms of acute psychosis.”
• Treatment with CBD in oily solution of drug-resistant paediatric epilepsies.
  “Improvement of epilepsy without side effects”
• Cannabidiol decreases bone resorption by inhibiting RANK/RANKL expression and pro-inflammatory cytokines during experimental periodontitis in rats.
  “These results indicate that CBD may be useful to control bone resorption during progression of experimental periodontitis in rats.”
• The nonpsychoactive cannabis constituent cannabidiol is a wake-inducing agent.
  “These findings suggest that this cannabinoid is a wake-inducing compound that presumably activates neurons in LH and DRN.”

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• The therapeutic rationale for combining tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol.
• Cannabidiol, a constituent of Cannabis sativa, modulates sleep in rats.

Anecdotal:

• Who’s Afriad of Cannabidiol?
  “THC -delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol is often described inaccurately as “the active ingredient in cannabis.” At least five other cannabinoids (compounds unique to the cannabis plant) have been shown to exhibit biological activity, and so have some of the spicy-smelling terpenes and other compounds found in plants other than cannabis.”