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Published on Thursday, September 30, 2010 by The Nation

Hands Off Social Security

by Bernie Sanders

A White House deficit commission is reportedly considering deep benefit cuts for Social Security, including a steep rise in the retirement age. We cannot let that happen. The deficit and our $13 trillion national debt are serious problems that must be addressed, but we can and must address them without punishing America’s workers, senior citizens, the disabled, widows and orphans.

First, let’s be clear: Despite all the right-wing rhetoric, Social Security is not going bankrupt. That’s a lie! The truth is that the Social Security Trust Fund has run surpluses for the last quarter century. Today’s $2.5 trillion cushion is projected to grow to $4 trillion in 2023. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, experts in this area, say Social Security will be able to pay every nickel owed to every eligible beneficiary until 2039. Got that? In case you don’t, let me repeat it. The people who have studied this issue most thoroughly and have no political bias report that Social Security will be able to pay out all benefits to ever eligible beneficiary for the next 29 years. It is true that by 2039, if nothing is changed, Social Security will be able to pay out only about 80 percent of benefits. That is why it is important that Congress act soon to make sure Social Security is as strong in the future as it is today.
The hatred of Social Security from the right-wing anti-government crowd is based on the fact that Social Security, a government program, has been enormously successful in accomplishing its mission. For 75 years, in good times and bad, Social Security has provided financial security for tens of millions of Americans.
Despite this outstanding record, Social Security has become a political football. For ideological reasons, some in Congress believe that government should not be in the business of providing benefits to seniors or the disabled. They want to privatize Social Security. Others say, incorrectly, that Social Security is going bankrupt, so benefits should be reduced and the retirement age set at 70. I strongly disagree with both assertions.
While the critics profess concern about Social Security’s financial future, their fuzzy math ignores the fact that this highly successful program has not added a dime to our deficit. From the day when the first check landed in the Ludlow, Vt., mailbox of retired legal secretary Ida May Fuller on Jan. 31, 1940, Social Security has more than paid for itself.
With regard to the future of Social Security, there are some really dangerous ideas out there, and one proposal that makes a lot of sense.
One of the worst ideas is to privatize Social Security. After the greed and recklessness of Wall Street caused markets to collapse in 2008, does anyone still seriously believe it would be a good idea to turn the retirement security of millions of Americans over to Wall Street CEOs whose dishonesty and irresponsibility have no end? Their administrative fees alone would take a 15 percent bite out of workers’ retirement investments, not to mention the real threat of another stock market collapse. In sharp contrast, administrative costs for Social Security are less than 1 percent of the program’s budget. Most importantly, despite economic conditions and the ups and downs of the stock market, Social Security has never failed to pay full benefits to every eligible beneficiary.
Another horrible idea is to move the retirement age up to 70. That would cheat today’s young workers out of about 15 percent of their retirement benefits over a lifetime. The proposal also ignores the reality that millions of workers in demanding professions simply cannot continue to work until they are 70. The upshot for them would be reduced lifetime benefits for retiring “early.” Lower-income workers, those less likely to have other savings, would be hurt the most.
In the midst of all of the destructive rhetoric and ideas out there with regard to Social Security, there is one proposal which is simple, sensible and would keep Social Security strong and solvent in a fair and just way. Under the law today, the Social Security payroll tax is levied only on earnings up to $106,800 a year. That means millionaires and billionaires get off scot free on all of their income above that amount. In other words, an individual who earns $106,800 pays the same Social Security tax as a multi-millionaire. That’s wrong. Applying the Social Security payroll tax on those with the most income, say over $250,000 a year, would correct this inequity. According to CBO, applying the tax to all income would provide all the revenue that Social Security needs for the foreseeable future – for our kids and grandchildren and great grandchildren.
As we mark the anniversary of Social Security, now is the time to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. For 75 years, Social Security has lifted millions of people out of poverty and has provided stability and dignity for the elderly and for other vulnerable Americans. Our goal today must be to make sure that Social Security will be as strong and stable 75 years from now as it is today.

© 2010 The Nation

Bernie Sanders, a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus, is the longest-serving Independent in US Congressional history.

by Bernie Sanders

A White House deficit commission is reportedly considering deep benefit cuts for Social Security, including a steep rise in the retirement age. We cannot let that happen. The deficit and our $13 trillion national debt are serious problems that must be addressed, but we can and must address them without punishing America’s workers, senior citizens, the disabled, widows and orphans.

First, let’s be clear: Despite all the right-wing rhetoric, Social Security is not going bankrupt. That’s a lie! The truth is that the Social Security Trust Fund has run surpluses for the last quarter century. Today’s $2.5 trillion cushion is projected to grow to $4 trillion in 2023. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, experts in this area, say Social Security will be able to pay every nickel owed to every eligible beneficiary until 2039. Got that? In case you don’t, let me repeat it. The people who have studied this issue most thoroughly and have no political bias report that Social Security will be able to pay out all benefits to ever eligible beneficiary for the next 29 years. It is true that by 2039, if nothing is changed, Social Security will be able to pay out only about 80 percent of benefits. That is why it is important that Congress act soon to make sure Social Security is as strong in the future as it is today.
The hatred of Social Security from the right-wing anti-government crowd is based on the fact that Social Security, a government program, has been enormously successful in accomplishing its mission. For 75 years, in good times and bad, Social Security has provided financial security for tens of millions of Americans.
Despite this outstanding record, Social Security has become a political football. For ideological reasons, some in Congress believe that government should not be in the business of providing benefits to seniors or the disabled. They want to privatize Social Security. Others say, incorrectly, that Social Security is going bankrupt, so benefits should be reduced and the retirement age set at 70. I strongly disagree with both assertions.
While the critics profess concern about Social Security’s financial future, their fuzzy math ignores the fact that this highly successful program has not added a dime to our deficit. From the day when the first check landed in the Ludlow, Vt., mailbox of retired legal secretary Ida May Fuller on Jan. 31, 1940, Social Security has more than paid for itself.
With regard to the future of Social Security, there are some really dangerous ideas out there, and one proposal that makes a lot of sense.
One of the worst ideas is to privatize Social Security. After the greed and recklessness of Wall Street caused markets to collapse in 2008, does anyone still seriously believe it would be a good idea to turn the retirement security of millions of Americans over to Wall Street CEOs whose dishonesty and irresponsibility have no end? Their administrative fees alone would take a 15 percent bite out of workers’ retirement investments, not to mention the real threat of another stock market collapse. In sharp contrast, administrative costs for Social Security are less than 1 percent of the program’s budget. Most importantly, despite economic conditions and the ups and downs of the stock market, Social Security has never failed to pay full benefits to every eligible beneficiary.
Another horrible idea is to move the retirement age up to 70. That would cheat today’s young workers out of about 15 percent of their retirement benefits over a lifetime. The proposal also ignores the reality that millions of workers in demanding professions simply cannot continue to work until they are 70. The upshot for them would be reduced lifetime benefits for retiring “early.” Lower-income workers, those less likely to have other savings, would be hurt the most.
In the midst of all of the destructive rhetoric and ideas out there with regard to Social Security, there is one proposal which is simple, sensible and would keep Social Security strong and solvent in a fair and just way. Under the law today, the Social Security payroll tax is levied only on earnings up to $106,800 a year. That means millionaires and billionaires get off scot free on all of their income above that amount. In other words, an individual who earns $106,800 pays the same Social Security tax as a multi-millionaire. That’s wrong. Applying the Social Security payroll tax on those with the most income, say over $250,000 a year, would correct this inequity. According to CBO, applying the tax to all income would provide all the revenue that Social Security needs for the foreseeable future – for our kids and grandchildren and great grandchildren.
As we mark the anniversary of Social Security, now is the time to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. For 75 years, Social Security has lifted millions of people out of poverty and has provided stability and dignity for the elderly and for other vulnerable Americans. Our goal today must be to make sure that Social Security will be as strong and stable 75 years from now as it is today.

© 2010 The Nation

Bernie Sanders, a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus, is the longest-serving Independent in US Congressional history.

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What If Everyone Had Medicare?

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San Francisco Chronicle

September 24, 2010

What if everyone had Medicare?

By Henry Abrons

The Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the United States earlier this month, and it's no surprise to learn that we're in bad shape. The number of people living in poverty was 43.6 million (14.3 percent), up sharply from 2008, and real per capita income declined 1 percent.

Looking at health insurance, the situation is truly dire. There was a dramatic spike in the uninsured - 4.3 million more, to a record 50.7 million - in spite of the expansion of government health insurance rolls by nearly 6 million.

Those opposing government health insurance should ponder the fact that private health insurance coverage dropped to the lowest level since comparable data were first collected in 1987. On the other hand, those who look to the new health reform law - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) - for a solution should be deeply disturbed.

PPACA was not designed to provide universal coverage. In fact, if the new law works as planned, in 2019 there will still be 23 million uninsured. Yet the consequence of being uninsured can be lethal: Research published last year shows about 45,000 deaths annually can be linked to lack of coverage. That number is probably more than 50,000 today.

As Don McCanne, senior health policy fellow at Physicians for a National Health Program, has observed, PPACA is an underinsurance program. Employers, seeing little relief, will expand the present trend of shifting more insurance and health care costs onto employees.

Individuals buying plans in the new insurance exchanges (which won't start until 2014) will discover that subsidies are inadequate to avoid financial hardship. Inevitably, they will end up with underinsurance, spotty coverage and high deductibles.

And workers who are unemployed or without employment-based insurance will move into Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California), where providers are reimbursed at such low rates that many will not accept patients.

When Congress passed the new law last spring, it based its decision on a faulty assumption - namely, that the rest of the population will have sustainable private health insurance. But between 2008 and 2009, the number of people covered by private health insurance decreased from 201.0 million to 194.5 million, and the number covered by employment-based health insurance declined from 176.3 million to 169.7 million.

If this trend continues, as it's bound to do under current economic conditions, the ranks of the uninsured will expand and the new law will fall far short of the mark - either the cost will exceed projections, or coverage will be need to be reduced.

The Census Bureau report underscores the urgency of going beyond the Obama administration and swiftly implementing a more fundamental reform - a single-payer national health insurance program - improved Medicare for all.

Improved Medicare-for-all, by replacing our dysfunctional patchwork of private health insurers with a single, streamlined system of financing, would save about $400 billion annually in unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy. That's enough to cover all of those now uninsured and to provide every person in the United States with quality, comprehensive coverage.

A single-payer plan would also furnish us with effective cost-control tools, like the ability to negotiate fees and purchase medications in bulk. It would permit patients to go to the doctor and hospital of their choice.

Short of a full national plan, some states, like ours, are eyeing a state-based single-payer model. The new health law allows states to experiment with different models of reform, but not until 2017. Congress should move that date forward. There is no time to waste.

(Henry Abrons, M.D., is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program-California - www.pnhpcalifornia.org.)

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-09-24/opinion/24086986_1_health-insurance-health-reform-law-universal-coverage

Comment:  Henry Abrons' message is certainly very familiar to supporters of an improved Medicare for all, but we have to keep repeating it over and over until more people start listening.

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The Rise of the New Power Co-Op Movement

by Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher

Breakdown at Copenhagen. Climate legislation stalled. EPA regulation of greenhouse gasses threatened. Is climate protection dead?

Maybe not. Climate protection has gone local. Political leaders may fiddle while the world burns, but grassroots groups around the country are organizing to cut greenhouse gas emissions and build a greener future for their communities. Block by block and using every tool at their disposal, groups are fighting to green schools and workplaces; setting up networks of green job training centers; installing solar water heaters in low income communities; and halting new coal-fired power plants with both political and direct action.

One of the least known but most promising examples of this "localization" of climate politics is the greening of utility co-ops to create affordable and renewable energy, green jobs, and regional green development. These efforts may well represent the beginning of a "New Power Co-Op Movement" that can help jump start the shift to a new green economy.

Electric co-ops are owned by their customers, who are called "members" due to their dual role as customer/owner. Their primary mission is to provide access to electricity at affordable prices for every potential member in their service area.

Electric co-ops were created as one of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs in order to promote rural development. The first electric co-op was born in 1934 in the back of a furniture store in Corinth, Mississippi. Within a few years, it had thousands of counterparts across the nation.

Today, America's 930 electric cooperatives are the sole source of electricity for 42 million people in 47 states -- nearly 12 percent of the nation's population. They control $100 billion in assets and $31 billion in member equity.

What Matters in Kansas

In western Kansas, rural communities, farms, and businesses get their electricity from Midwest Energy, the electric co-op based in Hays, Kansas. The co-op has pioneered an energy conservation strategy known as "on-bill financing." It has developed a program called How$mart that provides money for energy efficiency improvements such as insulation, air sealing, and new heating and cooling systems for residential and small business consumers. Co-op members -- whether owners or tenants -- don't have to put up any money "up-front." Instead, they repay the funds through energy savings on their monthly power bills.

Members start with an energy audit to determine potential savings. The co-op develops an individualized conservation plan. Members choose a contractor. If the member moves or sells the property, the deal passes to the next customer at that location.

The program started with a pilot in four rural counties in the summer of 2008; it then spread through rural Western Kansas. A year later it had invested $1 million in more than two hundred rural homes and businesses. It is estimated that customers will save over 400,000 kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power forty homes. That will put 13,000 fewer tons of carbon dioxide into the environment over the next twenty years. The Environmental Defense Fund recently recognized How$mart as one of America's best energy innovations.

"New Power" in Kentucky

For decades residents of eastern Kentucky have been fighting Big Coal's destruction of their majestic environment and cherished way of life by coal extraction. Much of that fight is led by the statewide citizens organization Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. KFTC has deep roots in the state's impoverished mountain communities where coal is mined; many of its leaders are former coal miners. While it has engaged in direct action against mountaintop removal, it recognizes that such action is not enough. Kentuckians desperately need a new strategy for economic development, energy, and jobs. KFTC is now promoting a plan for "New Power" that would make eastern Kentucky's electric cooperatives the pivot for such a strategy.

East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) is a cooperative that is owned by 16 local electric distribution coops. EKPC generates and sells power to these co-ops, which serve half a million members in 87 counties. EKPC is proposing to build a new 278-megawatt coal-burning power plant in central Kentucky along the Kentucky River at an estimated cost of nearly one billion dollars.

The Smith plant would only increase the dependence of Kentucky on coal for its energy supply and thereby increase the pressures for mountaintop removal. The struggle against the Smith plant has led KFTC to accompany its fight to save the mountains with a search for a "New Power" alternative.

With the help of KFTC, co-op members are now proposing that the co-ops not waste their funds on the Smith coal plant, but instead invest in an alternative plan to meet the power needs of their members through energy-saving and renewable energy programs. These local energy needs will be met by a combination of energy efficiency and weatherization initiatives paid through on-bill financing, along with local renewable energy, such as small-scale hydroelectric plants and rooftop solar hot water heaters. The New Power plan would cost less than the Smith Plant while meeting the same energy demand.

Such a plan would not only provide for eastern Kentucky's energy needs in a way that would protect the local environment and the global climate, it would also provide far more and better jobs. According to EKPC itself, the Smith plant will create only 700 temporary jobs at the peak of construction and 60 permanent jobs. Yet, according to the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies,an energy plan based on efficiency and renewables will create nearly 4,600 direct jobs over the same period it would take to build the Smith Plant. Members of local communities could be trained and hired for these green energy jobs.

The New Power plan would also significantly lower the utility bills of co-op members (some co-op members in eastern Kentucky spend more than 50% of income on energy). The estimated cost of electricity from the alternative plan is 17% less than the Smith coal-burning plant. Money saved could be invested in affordable housing, environmental restoration, healthcare, and other job-creating activities. (For more on KFTC's alternative program read: "A Cooperative Approach to Renewing East Kentucky".)

Co-op members in Kentucky are weighing the trade-off. According to Rachel Harrod, whose stepmother ran for a local co-op board this summer: "I believe there's an alternative that will be better for the environment, less costly to co-op members, and far more beneficial economically. The jobs generated by a clean energy portfolio would be a welcome boost to our local economy. I can't tell you how significant this would be to an area that has lost much of its agricultural base in recent years."

In addition to saving co-op members from paying for dirty power, a New Power program in eastern Kentucky could kick-start a broader agenda for transitioning Appalachia to the new green economy. Co-ops already have the key infrastructure in place. And instead of being controlled by for-profit investor utilities, the new facilities will literally be owned by eastern Kentucky -- the co-op owners, not distant stakeholders. These economic benefits will stay in Kentucky and reverberate through the region.

Greening Economic Democracy

Rural electric co-ops were once a model for economic democracy. David Lilienthal, a founding director of the Tennessee Valley Authority, described an electric coop annual meeting in the 1940s: "Throughout a whole day as many as 2,000 farmers and their wives and children discussed the financial and operating reports made to them by their [co-op] superintendent and board of trustees, and later while we ate a barbecue lunch watched new uses of electricity demonstrated."

He added, "These membership "town meetings" are not simply business sessions. They have an emotional overtone, a spiritual meaning to people who were so long denied the benefits of modern energy."

But many electric coops have become distant from such town meeting democracy. In eastern Kentucky, for example, elections to coop boards are rarely contested, with many of the officers serving for decades. Policies are often controlled by coal and other energy companies; as a result, Kentucky's rural electrical cooperatives are more than 90 percent dependent on coal. That makes rural Kentuckians vulnerable to rising fuel prices and coal depletion.

Building the new green economy will require the revival of democracy -- at every level. That's why co-op members, with the help of KFTC, have begun challenging the entrenched leadership of local co-op boards. This year, KFTC members Dallas Ratliff and Tona Barkley ran for the board of the Owen Electrical Cooperative. In her campaign materials Barkley says: "As a board member, I will strive to make the co-op more open and democratic. I'll also promote a stronger approach to helping members improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses and a more aggressive approach to transitioning into more renewable sources of energy -- to protect members from rising energy costs, to protect our health, and to create local jobs."

Like Tona, hundreds of KFTC members throughout the state see a clear link between new democratic power and new clean energy power.

Such a program could be a model for the 400 rural electrical co-ops with 40 million members nationwide. And that could be a significant contribution to a new strategy for protecting the global climate -- from below.

Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher are the editors, with Jill Cutler, of In the Name of Democracy, American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (Metropolitan, 2005). Brecher, a historian who has authored more than a dozen books including Strike!, writes for the Nation magazine among other publications. For his documentary film work he has received five regional Emmy Awards. Legal scholar Brendan Smith (blsmith28@gmail.com), a former senior congressional aide specializing in defense and human rights policy, is coauthor of Globalization from Below, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and the Baltimore Sun.

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Columnist Opeyemi Parham: Masculinity and the Global Heart

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Masculinity and the Global Heart .

On the cover of the September 20th issue of Newsweek is this photo of a hunk of a guy (and I do mean hunk, the muscles just ripple off of his naked back, as he faces away from the camera), holding a three year old boy in his arms.  The boy looks directly into the camera, and the look on his face is wise beyond his years.
I don’t know how they got that little boy to give such a probing stare, but the article’s title is what hooked me. “Man UP! The traditional male is an endangered species. It’s time to rethink masculinity.”
My reaction to the title?  Thank GOD someone has noticed! Let us now hope the article takes a sensible direction and not a sensational one.
I’ll let you read the article yourself, and decide what you think of it’s biases:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/20/why-we-need-to-reimagine-masculinity.html
 All I can say is, finally someone is talking about what I have known for years. Men have been as trapped by the sterotypes of masculinity as women have been by those of femininity. The trouble is there has been no first, second or third wave of feminism to help the poor guys out of their own mess.
I am very excited to have recently read a book by Anodea Judith called “Awakening The Global Heart: Humanity’s Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to the Power of Love”. In this well researched and deeply spiritual treatise, she describes our historical evolution through various kinds of power. She points out positive and negative characteristics of dynamic and static eras of time, with masculine or feminine power at the helm. She describes our current evolutionary crisis as needing to move from a static masculine to a dynamic feminine model, and our emotional state as equivalent to an adolescent, moving into adulthood.
It is a facinating book and an exciting theory. In order for us to make this shift, men have to surrender (I use this word with caution) many of the trappings of power that have actually been hinderences to the heart. And in the power of that arresting photo that I saw the shadow that we still carry culturally
It is the emotions evoked deliberately by that Newsweek photo that led me to comment here. Something about the beefcake guy holding the child implied protection and “father”, but the lack of a face and the photo’s deliberate focus on the physical symbol of power (muscles) disturbed me. And that probing stare of the boy child seems to hold an accusation. Something about this boy not having a clear set of  scaffolding for himself, if the roles are changing. There is a bit of a feeling of If you take away my power, WHO AM I?" in the eyes of that child.
Then I remembered an Anne Geddes photo of these huge hands, holding this tiny sleeping child:
http://www.youjustmademylist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/man_holding_baby_hands.jpg
and the Spencer Rowell photo of a blue-jeaned man and a baby
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/magazine_enl_1169145934/img/1.jpg
 And I realized that we have truly done boys and injustice, with very little imagery to offer alternatives to static masculine, "power over" roles.
Google”man and boy” as a subject line and you won’t find many heart warming images. In fact you won’t find many images, at all. That is how foreign this concept of men moving outside their proscribed role of protector into other roles as nurturer, or caregiver, or healer (of the heart-- there is an image of a man later in the Newseek article that implies that he is a NURSE, not a doctor) truly is.
Opening to this conversation may be a dirty and painful process risking cheap shots and silly inuendoes, but finally someone is talking about how scary and threatening new roles for men can be.
Let us keep shifting that paradigm.

--
                        Opeyemi  413-336-1291

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Excercise and Reduce Fructose to Live Longer

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Dr. Joseph Mercola

By Dr. Joseph Mercola on Huffingtonpost

If You Want to Age Gracefully, Don't Eat This

Death is surely inevitable, but I do believe you can live far longer than the average life expectancy tables (1) would predict, which in the U.S. is about 78. Genetics may play a role, but it is NOT the final determining factor for whether you'll live a long healthy life.
Barring an accident, your lifestyle has everything to do with your longevity.
It's already been established that diet can override genetic predispositions for disease (2), so don't fall into the trap of believing your health and longevity is somehow inescapably tied to what's polluting your gene pool.
The Leading Cause of Premature Aging and Death
Increased insulin and leptin receptor resistance (3) has clearly become the leading cause of premature aging and death. This results from two primary conditions: too much sugar and processed foods, combined with insufficient exercise.
Interestingly, controlling these two factors will likely eliminate more than 90 percent of the following medical conditions:
• High blood pressure
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• High cholesterol
Of all the molecules capable of inflicting damage to your body, probably the most damaging are sugar molecules. Fructose in particular is an extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent that accelerates aging.
Today's excessive sugar consumption is mostly an artifact of the postindustrial agricultural revolution.
More than 30 years ago, scientists learned how to cheaply produce sugar from corn, and now it is loaded into nearly all processed foods and has become the number one source of calories in most developed countries.
Fructose is a major contributor to:
• Insulin resistance and obesity
• Elevated blood pressure (4)
• Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL (5)
• Cardiovascular disease (6), liver disease, cancer, arthritis and even gout
How Fructose Accelerates Aging
Fructose adversely affects your body in a number of ways, but one of the mechanisms that causes significant damage is glycation, a process by which the sugar bonds with proteins and forms so-called advanced glycation end products, or AGEs. It's a fitting acronym because--along with oxidation--it's one of the major molecular mechanisms whereby damage accrues in your body, which leads to disease, aging and eventually death.
When sugar glycates, it creates inflammation, which activates your immune system in a defensive maneuver. Macrophages are scavenger cells that are part of your immune defense, and as such they have special receptors for AGEs, aptly called RAGEs (think: raging inflammation). These RAGEs bind to the AGEs and get rid of them.
Unfortunately, this process can leave its fair share of battle scars.
Inside your arteries, for example, the scar tissue created from this process is called plaque. This process underlies the strong connection between diabetes and heart disease.
As a standard recommendation, I strongly recommend keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.
However, most people would be wise to limit their fructose to 15 grams or less, particularly if you have elevated uric acid levels, which can be used as a predictor for fructose toxicity. (For more information on the fructose/uric acid connection, please see this recent article.)
This includes keeping track of your fructose intake from whole fruits. For a helpful chart showing the fructose content of many common fruits, please see this link. I recommend this lower level simply because if you consume processed foods or sweet beverages at all, you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose.
Read this if you believe fruit is healthy and you can consume unlimited amounts:
Many people who eat large amounts of fruit are not convinced that fruit can be dangerous. However many fruits have a large amount of fructose that can worsen insulin resistance if you consume too much of it. It is also important to realize that 80 percent of Americans have diseases resulting from insulin resistance which are listed at the beginning of this article.
If you have one of these conditions you would be wise to limit your total grams of daily fructose to 15 grams per day until you resolve the insulin resistance. If you are still unconvinced you can measure your blood uric acid level and it will typically be greater than 5.5 if you are eating too much fructose.
New research has shown that uric acid is a far more accurate predictor of heart disease than your total cholesterol level and the more it is higher than 5.5 it is, the greater your risk. If your uric acid is between 3 and 5 than you do not need to be concerned about your current fructose intake, as you likely have a metabolism that can adjust for it and not cause you harm.
Fresh fruit is nearly always preferred to fruit juices as the processing destroys many of the nutrients in the fruit and many commercial fruit juices are also highly adulterated or deceptively labeled.
Additionally it is important to understand that most commercial fruit juices should be avoided as fruit juice typically has large amounts of methanol, which is wood alcohol, and a metabolic poison. Often the methanol is bound to pectin and when you consume fresh fruits the methanol passes through your body and causes you no harm. However, after the fruit is processed into juice and put into containers, the methanol gradually dissociates from the pectin and dissolves in the juice.
The longer the fruit juice is in the container, or the more heat it is exposed to, the more methanol that is released into the juice.
Next, in order to better understand the cause of aging, you need to become familiar with some nasty little compounds called "free radicals."
Free Radicals on a Mission to Damage Your DNA
The most widely accepted idea for life extension is the free radical theory, which says that as you age, you begin to "self destruct," courtesy of free radicals. Free radicals are aggressive chemical compounds, created as a byproduct of your natural metabolism, that damage your DNA.
Poor lifestyle choices (7) such as smoking, consuming processed foods laden with trans fats and other harmful chemical additives, along with pesticide and other chemical residue, further add to your free radical burden.
With time, your DNA eventually becomes damaged beyond your body's ability to repair it; and once your biological processes fail, you die.
Antioxidants continually combat these free radicals--which is why a diet high in natural antioxidants is so important for your health and longevity. Antioxidants are abundant in a number of foods, and your BEST source of high quality antioxidants is fresh, raw organic vegetables and fruits (especially berries).
To Supplement, or Not to Supplement
I have never been a fan of taking fistfuls of supplements in lieu of altering your diet to get the nutrients you need. However, supplementation can sometimes be useful.
There are three nutrients that have special importance with respect to aging:
1. Resveratrol
2. Coenzyme Q10
3. Glutathione (GSH)
Resveratrol is one antioxidant that I often recommend as a supplement.
Sometimes referred to as a "fountain of youth" nutrient, resveratrol appears to be particularly potent (8) for extending lifespan. It is unique among antioxidants because it can cross the blood-brain barrier to help protect your brain and nervous system.
Another important but often overlooked antioxidant is coenzyme Q-10--but more specifically the reduced version, called ubiquinol.
Your liver produces CoQ10, which is actually an essential nutrient for health and longevity because it provides energy to every single cell in your body. Unfortunately, after age 25, your natural levels of this critical compound begin to decline, which is why I personally take ubiquinol every day.
CoQ10 is also an absolute necessity if you're on statin drugs as they can quickly deplete your body of this vital antioxidant. This is partly why statins are so harmful to your heart.
Glutathione is another important and underutilized antioxidant. Interestingly, increased glutathione levels may actually play a role in stopping telomere (9) shortening, which is one of the most exciting anti-aging discoveries in recent years.
Glutathione is one nutrient I believe you can optimize with proper diet, so it is probably unnecessary to supplement. If you are recovering from a serious illness, you certainly could consider supplementation.
I have reservations about most glutathione supplements, in general.
You can obtain it from raw organic milk, free-range animal foods and eggs. But probably your best source of glutathione (10) is a high quality whey protein.
If you want to use a whey product, realize there are vast differences among them. Many whey proteins on the market are highly processed and contain a number of undesirable additives. Make sure your whey protein is derived from grass-fed cows and is very carefully processed to preserve the fragile amino acid precursors.
I am so impressed by the research on telomeres and glutathione that I take a high quality organic grass fed whey protein called Miracle Whey protein every morning, and a second dose before my twice-weekly strength training sessions.
Learning from Those Who've Lived the Longest
Longevity researchers (11) have long searched for the magic common denominators that might explain the extended life spans of centenarians.
What they've found is the people who've lived the longest tend to eat large amounts of whole unprocessed minimally cooked plants and live in areas that promote regular physical activity, such as daily walking. They also tend to have effective strategies for coping with the inevitable stresses of life, such as prayer, meditation and strong social networks.
In fact, being able to effectively cope with stress, it turns out, is one of the MAJOR common denominators for people who live long, robust lives.
One of the proposed reasons for this strong link is that stress, just like fructose, promotes inflammation in your body.
Indeed, most of the research indicates that longevity hinges on preventing chronic inflammation. Avoiding sugar/fructose while consuming antioxidant-rich whole foods, together with physical exercise and stress reduction, will do just that.
Adopt the Anti-Aging Lifestyle
Of all the healthy lifestyle strategies I know of that can have a significant impact on your longevity, normalizing your insulin and leptin levels is probably the most important. And that means modifying your diet to avoid excessive amounts of fructose, grains and other pro-inflammatory ingredients like trans fats.
Here are the rest of my top "anti-aging" recommendations:
1.Learn how to effectively cope with stress. As discussed earlier, stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Therefore, developing effective coping mechanisms is a great strategy for increasing your longevity.
Meditation, prayer, physical activity and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium. I also strongly believe in using energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to address deeper, oftentimes hidden emotional scars.
2.Eat a healthful diet based on your nutritional type. My nutrition plan should be your first step. This is so important that I now offer the full nutritional typing program for FREE (12).
3. Optimize your vitamin D levels (13) . This is another very powerful and inexpensive intervention that can have profound benefits to your health. You can either optimize your levels by carefully managed direct sun exposure, or use an oral supplement (typically 5-10,000 units of vitamin D3 for most adults).
4.Eat plenty of animal-based omega-3 fat (14) . Correcting the ratio of omega-3 to healthful omega-6 fats is a strong factor in helping people live longer. This typically means increasing your intake of animal based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil, while decreasing your intake of damaged omega-6 fats (think trans fats).
I do not, however, recommend the new prescription-strength fish oil medication, sold under the name Lovaza (15) . Don't be fooled by their "all natural" PR campaign. This is actually a drug to treat very high triglyceride levels.
As with most other drugs, Lovaza comes with potentially dangerous side effects that you would not experience with a natural fish oil or krill oil supplement. Side effects include flu-like symptoms, infections, back pain, skin rashes, upset stomach, taste changes, digestive issues, chest pain, migraines and respiratory problems.
Additionally, new research strongly suggests that 500 mg of krill oil is more potent and far less expensive.
5. Get your antioxidants from real foods. Good sources include blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries and most intensely pigmented vegetables.
6. Use coconut oil(15) . Another excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, known to reduce your risk of heart disease and lower your cholesterol, among other things. In fact, it's doubly beneficial because it can be both eaten and applied directly to your skin. Coconut oil can be used in place of other oils for most of your cooking needs.
7. Get your resveratrol naturally. Resveratrol is one of the forerunners in the anti-aging pill race, but more than likely, by the time they've manipulated it into a synthetic pill (like the fish oil discussed above), it won't be healthy for you.
Although resveratrol is found in red wine, I can't recommend drinking wine regularly, in the hope of extending your life because alcohol is a neurotoxin that can poison your brain and harm your body's delicate hormonal balance. Instead, get your resveratrol from natural sources, such as whole grape skins and seeds, raspberries, and mulberries.
8. Exercise regularly, and correctly. Studies repeatedly show that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay the onset of hypertension, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis and the falls that lead to hip fractures.
Although a lifetime of regular exercise is ideal, it's never too late to start. It's been shown that even individuals in their 70s can substantially increase both strength and endurance with exercise.
I'm very excited about the research showing how high-intensity interval training can increase longevity as this specific style of training (Peak 8) promotes human growth hormone production--yet another aspect of the longevity puzzle.
9. Avoid as many chemicals, toxins, and pollutants as possible (17). This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
10. Avoid pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs kill thousands of people prematurely every year--they are now the largest cause of fatal drug overdoses (18). If you adhere to a healthful lifestyle, you are less likely to "need" drugs since a healthy immune system will protect you from chronic disease.
Incorporating these simple guidelines will help set you squarely on the path to optimal health and give you the best shot at living a long, happy life.
Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder and director of Mercola.com. Become a fan of Dr. Mercola on Facebook, on Twitter, and check out Dr. Mercola's report on sun exposure!
References:
(1) "List of countries by life expectancy," Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
(2) Dai J, et al. "Mediterranean dietary pattern is associated with improved cardiac autonomic function among middle-aged men: A twin study," Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 2010;3:366-373 http://circoutcomes.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/short/3/4/366
(3) Olatunbosun ST and Dagogo-Jack S. (April 16, 2010) "Insulin resistance." eMedicine from WebMD http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/122501-overview
(4) "Higher fructose intake tied to increased hypertension risk" (July 2, 2010) Modern Medicine http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/Modern+Medicine+Now/Higher-Fructose-Intake-Tied-to-Increased-Hypertens/ArticleNewsFeed/Article/detail/677401
(5) Mercola.com, "This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism" http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/26/sugar-may-be-bad-but-this-sweetener-is-far-more-deadly-part-2.aspx
(6) Bakalar N. (April 22, 2009) "Fructose-sweetened beverages linked to heart risks," New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/health/23sugar.html
(7) Kvaavik E, et al. "Influence of individual and combined health behaviors on total and cause-specific mortality in men and women: The United Kingdom health and lifestyle survey" Arch Inern Med. 2010 Apr 26;170(8):711-8 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20421558
(8) Daniells S. (September 14, 2009) Science: Resveratrol's miraculous promise" NutraIngredients http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Science-Resveratrol-s-miraculous-promise/?c=YcPaFAqXDgt92iRxXsRniQ%3D%3D&utm_source=newsletter_special_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BSpecial%2BEdition
(9) Mercola.com, "Science Finally Reveals How You Can Actually REVERSE Aging" http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/02/23/science-finally-reveals-how-you-can-actually-revese-aging.aspx
(10)Palkhivala A. (July 30, 2001) "Glutathione: New Supplement on the Block" WebMD http://www.nutritionadvisor.com/web_md.htm
(11) Mercola.com, "See My Presentation at the Anti-Aging Conference" http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/18/see-my-presentation-at-the-antiaging-conference.aspx
(12) Mercola.com, "The Secret that is Stunning Nutritionists" http://products.mercola.com/nutritional-typing/
(13) Vitamin D Council http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
(14) Herper M. "What you need to know about fish oil." Forbes http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/09/omega-fatty-acids-lifestyle-health-heart-disease.html
(15) Lovaza.com, http://www.lovaza.com/
(16) "Research on coconut oil" http: //www.coconutoil.com/research.htm
(17) Centers for disease control and prevention, National report on human exposure to environmental chemicals, the fourth report, July 2010, http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/
(18) Szabo L. (August 10, 2010) "Prescriptions now biggest cause of fatal drug overdoses" USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-30-drug-overdose_N.htm

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Published on Monday, September 20, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

Bradley Manning: An American Hero

by Marjorie Cohn

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is accused of leaking military secrets to the public. This week, his supporters are holding rallies in 21 cities, seeking Manning's release from military custody. Manning is in the brig for allegedly disclosing a classified video depicting U.S. troops shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in Iraq in July 2007. The video, available at www.collateralmurder.com, was published by WikiLeaks on April 5, 2010. Manning faces 52 years in prison. No charges have been filed against the soldiers in the video.
In October 1969, the most famous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, smuggled out of his office and made public a 7,000 page top secret study of decision making during the Vietnam War. It became known as the Pentagon Papers. Dan risked his future, knowing that he would likely spend life in prison for his expose.
The release of the Pentagon Papers ultimately helped end not only the Nixon presidency, but also the Vietnam War, in which 58,000 Americans and three million Indochinese were killed. Dan's courageous act was essential to holding accountable our leaders who had betrayed American values by starting and perpetuating an illegal and deadly war.
Manning's alleged crimes follow in this tradition. The 2007 video, called "Collateral Murder," has been viewed by millions of people on the Internet. On it, U.S. military Apache helicopter soldiers from Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment can be seen killing 12 civilians and wounding two children in Iraq. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency.
The video shows U.S. forces watching as a van pulled up to evacuate the wounded. They again opened fire from the helicopter, killing more people. During the radio chatter between the helicopter crew members and their supervisors, one crew member gloated after the first shooting, saying, "Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards."
One Iraqi witness told Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! "The helicopter came yesterday from there and hovered around. Then it came right here where a group of people were standing. They didn't have any weapons or arms of any sort. This area doesn't have armed insurgents. They destroyed the place and shot at people, and they didn't let anyone help the wounded."
Another witness said, "They killed all the wounded and drove over their bodies. Everyone witnessed it. And the journalist was among those who was injured, and the armored vehicle drove over his body."
Journalist Rick Rowley reported that the man who they drove over had crawled out of the van that had been shot and he was still alive when the American tank drove over him and cut him in half.
Commanders decided that the wounded children would not be taken to a U.S. military field hospital. Ethan McCord, one of the soldiers on the scene who picked up one of the children and tried to take him to a military vehicle, was reprimanded for his response.
The U.S. Central Command exonerated the soldiers and refused to reopen the investigation. Reporters Without Borders said, "If this young soldier had not leaked the video, we would have no evidence of what was clearly a serious abuse on the part of the U.S. military."
In fact, the actions depicted in "Collateral Murder" contain evidence of three violations of the laws of war set forth in the Geneva Conventions, which amount to war crimes.
There were civilians standing around, there was no one firing at the American soldiers, and at least two people had cameras. There may have been people armed, as are many in the United States, but this does not create the license to fire on people. That is one violation of the Geneva Conventions - targeting civilians who do not pose a threat, not for military necessity.
The second and third possible violations of the laws of war are evident in the scene on the tape when the van attempts to rescue the wounded, and a later scene of a U.S. tank rolling over a body on the ground. The soldiers shot the rescuer and those in the van, another possible violation of the Geneva Conventions - preventing the rescue. Third, when the wounded or dead man was lying on the ground, a U.S. tank rolled over him, effectively splitting him in two. If he was dead, that amounted to disrespecting a body, another violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Josh Steiber, a former U.S. Army specialist and member of the Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment, was not with his company when they killed the civilians depicted in Collateral Murder. Steiber told Truthout that such acts were "not isolated incidents" and were "common" during his tour of duty. "After watching the video, I would definitely say that that is, nine times out of 10, the way things ended up," he said.
Steiber explained that during his basic training for the military, "We watched videos celebrating death," and said that his commanders would "pull aside soldiers who'd not deployed, and ask us if somebody open fired on us in a market full of unarmed civilians, would we return fire. And if you didn't say 'yes' instantly, you got yelled at for not being a good soldier. The mindset of military training was one based on fear, and the ability to eliminate any threat."
Manning is also being investigated for allegedly leaking the "Afghan War Diary" documents that were posted on Wiki Leaks in coordination with the New York Times, the U.K. Guardian, and the German magazine Der Spiegel. But President Obama said, "...the fact is, these documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan."
Those reports expose 20,000 deaths, including thousands of children, according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Many of them also likely contain evidence of war crimes.
Besides the fact that targeting civilians is illegal, it also makes us less safe. A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which was released by the New America Foundation, concluded that civilian attacks in Afghanistan make our troops more vulnerable due to retaliation. A typical incident that causes two Afghan civilian deaths provokes six revenge attacks by Taliban and other fighters.
Moreover, Marine Col. David Lapan, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said that so far, there is no evidence that the Taliban has harmed any Afghan civilians as a result of the WikiLeaks publication of the 76,000 logs this past summer.
Over 1,000 Americans and untold numbers of Afghans have been killed in this war which is just as illegal, expensive, and counter-productive as the one in Iraq.
The charges against Manning end with the language, "such conduct being prejudicial to good order and discipline in the armed forces and being of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces." On the contrary, if Manning did what he is suspected of doing, he should be honored as an American hero for exposing war crimes and hopefully, ultimately, helping to end this war.
Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past President of the National Lawyers Guild, is the deputy secretary general for external communications of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists..  She is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (with Kathleen Gilberd).  Her anthology, The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse, will be published in 2010 by NYU Press. Her articles are archived at www.marjoriecohn.com

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How to Respond to a Poison Pen Letter, and Awaken the Global heart

 Columnist Opeyemi Parham, MD

How to Respond to a Poison Pen Letter, and Awaken the Global heart
Spirit moves in mysterious ways.  I am trying to ramp up my computer literacy and set an intention of focusing more on blogging. So I began by going to my wordpress blog site, and trying to really understand it’s potential. That meant checking into features that I had previously ignored, like the comments section.
Earlier this year, I wrote a blog titled, “I Hate Money”.  This week, I found a comment/response to that blog from back in April. It reads as follows:
“Speaking as one of your former friends, I know from personal experience why you didn’t receive much money: you’re a user. I paid you once to assist me for a project, and you shorted me on your time. In my generosity, I paid you in advance, and yet you never reimbursed me for the extra money. I’ve also witnessed you borrowing money from other friends, and also not paying them back.
All of your misinformed and magical mumbojumbo, doesn’t detract from the reality of your life: you’re poor because you fucked up your potentially lucrative career. It’s not anyone’s responsibility but yours, to straighten your life out.
It’s all finally caught up with you, Camilla. Eventually, you’ll run out of friends, family, and lovers to filch off of. I’ll bet that you lack the courage to print this, too.”
Wow, pretty nasty. And the thing that really got to me (besides the anonymous nature of the message) was that it really addresses some of my shadows.  I feel terribly incompetent financially, and I am still running like a hamster in a cage to “get back on top” with respect to my relationship with money. The part about using folks and borrowing from friends without repaying them really hit home. The part about “fucking up my lucrative career” was like salt in a wound, as I move from three years working as a clerk to a new, part time job as a receptionist, grateful that I have money to pay my rent.
And as I said, Spirit moves in mysterious ways.  The morning I found the comment, my daily meditation using tarot cards had revealed “guilt” from the Osho deck and “crossroads” from the goddess oracle deck. My  “magical mumbojumbo” had left me ready for something to happen that day that would be about a crossroads with respect to guilt issues. I was ready for that attack. It helped me clarify my priorities. I will be working with Jean Gran, who is a financial recovery counselor (see http://www.jeangran.com/) really taking the bull by the horns.
For about a day, I really couldn’t imagine who disliked me enough to send a comment like that.  I tried to respond to the e-mail address listed
My e-mail was returned, with the address no longer in existence.
And all this happened this week, during The Days of Awe, culminating this morning with Yom Kippur.  Once again, that magical mumbojumbo has deep meaning and significance.
I woke up this morning and knew exactly who had sent me the poison pen letter.
What an epiphany.
I have no need to name this person; let it suffice that it is a  Jewish man.  I found myself rapidly moving from anger and hurt over the words of that comment to a deep understanding for how injured this former friend really is.  I am not faking it; I actually respond to stress more and more with a “tend and befriend” response, rather than the taker culture’s “fight/fly/ or freeze” patterning.
How appropriate that this entire incident resolves itself on a high holy day in Judaism, when forgiveness and atonement are central.
I forgive myself my clumsiness and inadequate focus on money, and I set my intention to right it.
I forgive my name caller and attacker. I deeply understand and acknowledge the wounding done to this man by his own family, and his religion. I hold compassion and understanding, having witnessed him make poor choices in personal relationships and witnessed him suffer the consequences. I will send him love and light…from the appropriate distance. I am pagan; no Christian martyrdom, here.
This is how we really do it—heal the world. Awaken the Global Heart. Tikkun Olam.

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Net Neutrality Vital To Free Speech

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Published on Thursday, September 16, 2010 by TechZone 360.com

Net Neutrality Absolutely Vital to Assuring Progressive Free Speech

by Mark Weisbrot

The mass media remains one of the most powerful forces blocking social and economic progress in the 21st century.

It is because of the mass media that tens of millions of Americans are convinced that budget deficits are more important than the lives ruined by unemployment, or that Social Security won't be there for them when they retire. Or that their government's occupation of Afghanistan and its hundreds of military bases around the world, are protecting the "national security" of U.S. citizens.

All of these destructive myths -- and many more -- could be dispelled within a relatively short time if there were a free marketplace of ideas, instead of the "free press for those who own it" model currently in place.

Of course, other falsehoods would persist for much longer; ideas, once widely accepted, can have great inertia. But during the last two decades the Internet has introduced a degree of competition in the world of mass communications, which although still quantitatively small, is nonetheless unprecedented.

An interactive process has been set in motion with the Internet and the blogosphere acting as a check on the mass media -- sometimes breaking important news that would otherwise go unnoticed or unreported in systems with direct censorship such as China and also in limited democracies like the United States; and sometimes influencing the journalists who produce the mass media.

This process has the potential for accelerating with the development and spread of Internet technology, for example to Internet television; and of course with advances in literacy and education.

This is rare in the history of technology, and especially in the technology of communications. Almost all prior innovations -- radio, television and motion pictures -- have mostly made it easier for the few to control the many -- like pilotless drone military planes.

This progressive contribution of the Internet is reliant on the principle of "net neutrality": that Internet service providers treat all packets of data the same. An individual blogger's challenge to The Washington Post can be downloaded by anyone at the same speed as the content of the multi-billion dollar corporate newspaper itself. Intelligent readers can decide for themselves who is correct.

The Federal Communications Commission has been considering what its role and rules should be for enforcing net neutrality, and in early August Google and Verizon put forth their own proposal on these issues.

These two big corporations, along with others, are likely to have a considerable influence on the FCC and Congress, and their proposal has elicited a torrent of criticism. It exempts wireless and other "online services" from net neutrality, and has other big loopholes.

There is now a clear and present danger that the road will be paved to a fragmented Internet where service providers can determine what people will see on the Web, and carve out a "non-neutral" sector. As Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., has noted, defending net neutrality is "the First Amendment issue of our time." America's great concentrations of wealth -- more concentrated than at any time since the 1920s -- already dominate the Internet. But not nearly as much as they dominate the vast majority of information that Americans receive from more monopolized info-tainment news outlets such as TV, radio and what remains of the newspaper industry.

A coalition of organizations including MoveOn.org, Color of Change, Free Press and Credo Action is calling on Americans to lend a hand and preserve this one remaining mass medium of free speech and equal rights, before it is remade in accordance with corporate needs. We the people need the Internet as we know it is the essential tool in ongoing battle of ideas.

It is time to fight for it.

© 2010 Tribun Media Services

Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), in Washington, DC.

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