Category Archives: whistleblowers

More on Rogoff and Reinhart

by

Firedoglake has this up on the *cough* research of Rogoff and Reinhart.

From one of the commenters, letsgetitdone at 16:

I think, finally, that the RR study is an example of the corruption of social science in modern times. I believe that one can show that the study was not just guilty of calculation errors and errors of omission, but that these must be seen as part of a pattern of systematic bias that permeated their whole process of inquiry beginning with their selection of the problem, moving through every decision point in implementing the study, and ending with their evaluation of their evidence and their writing of the result. They made no attempt to do a scientific study maximizing fair comparison of alternative theories having policy relevance, but instead prepared what was essentially a legal brief supporting austerity policies and the Pete Peterson line. The social costs of what they did are strewn all over the globe. See this recent post at DailyKos.

 ~~~~~~~~
I agree that if R and R purposely left out data (and the concensus is that they did), then what they did was fraudulent and a deliberate attempt to persuade public opinion towards austerity.
This should be *sounding the bells*  as to how very, very important our public education system is….from  kindergarten through four year colleges….the public needs to be able to understand this stuff in the most basic terms.  And the financial gurus purposely make it difficult to understand for the Jane/John Does of the U.S., to give themselves the upper hand.  Like I said about the university I attended, they made math more difficult than it had to be –the only conclusion one can come to is that they were doing it on purpose to “weed out” people.  This, in turn, means fewer graduates with Math degrees to compete in the job market, enabling them to be paid more $$.  It also means that financial gurus can bullshit people and no one will be the wiser.  When the Wall St. meltdown happened, there were econ people who could not figure the mess out…how are Jane/John Doe supposed to?
With the Liberal Arts degree, I have a basic understanding of statistics from a political science class. We were taught to look for the reasons behind conclusions of research.  Who funded it?  What other work have these researchers done (looking at other work for biases)?  Who benefits from it (will a corporation use the data as an asset or use the data to knock down a competitor)?  If it was a poll, we were taught that anything more than 2% plus or minus of the margin of error was a flawed study–the questions asked were biased in some way or not thorough enough.
That is why one should always question absolutes in science or absolute truth that anyone espouses.  If more people were less intimidated and asked “why” and to say “I don’t understand” to someone trying to buffalo them, the financial gurus and others like them would not be able to get away with the stuff that they do.  Thank God for people like Herndon and the others who seek the truth and are not afraid to speak out.
I followed the link that letsgetitdone had in the comment to dailykos, which in turn had the link to the cepr.net website.
This quote from the cepr website says it all:
This is a big deal because politicians around the world have used this finding from R&R to justify austerity measures that have slowed growth and raised unemployment. In the United States many politicians have pointed to R&R’s work as justification for deficit reduction even though the economy is far below full employment by any reasonable measure. In Europe, R&R’s work and its derivatives have been used to justify austerity policies that have pushed the unemployment rate over 10 percent for the euro zone as a whole and above 20 percent in Greece and Spain. In other words, this is a mistake that has had enormous consequences.
~~~~~~~~~~
Minor quibble—as everyone is leaning to, this was not a “mistake”…but a deliberate attempt to misconstrue data to suit their political ideology, and that of Pete Peterson.

Blood Medicine

by

I’m watching Kathleen Sharp on BookTV (yay, Book TV) that has written a book called Blood Medicine about a cancer drug, Epo,  that did a great job of helping red blood cells to grow….

….unfortunately, it also helps cancer cells to grow.

Yes, yes, it is freaking amazing that this drug is on the market with serious issues such as suspected of killing people.

The operation was a success.  But the patient died.

Sharp describes a cancer patient was helped by the drug with his cancer fight, but died because he began bleeding out the nose and mouth.

Sharp is adamant against pharmaceutical companies being able to advertise on Tv.  I  believe she said that we and perhaps another country are the only developed countries that allow these commercials.

In Communications, they go to great lengths in order to sell the product.  Advertising agencies will do a study of the targeted audience to see how to construct the message for the best impact — i.e., to get the target audience  to request it from their doctors. or perhaps I should say demand it from their doctors.  They are convinced by slick advertising that *this* drug will help them get healthy again.   As someone who has been *there*, it really doesn’t take much in convincing if you’re so ill that you would do almost anything to regain your health.  Sharp didn’t even touch on the fact that these doctors who are prescribing these drugs, may be invested in these companies, and therefore, have a financial interest to prescribe these drugs.  I’ve seen how pharma works –they are not legally supposed to buy doctors lunches and other gifts….so they have “information sessions” and just happen to have it during the lunch hour….and have lunch brought in.  Ahem.

A sunshine law is part of the Obama health plan.  We’ll see if it does any good.  I’m pessimistic because the whole culture surrounding the FDA and the pharm industry and the billion dollar lobbying by Big Pharma…

More history here.

And here.  How can we forget Bush appointment, Dr. Hager,  and his ex-wife’s allegations of marital rape?

Sharp mentions the revolving door between the pharm industry and the FDA.

A man calling himself  John calls in and is identifying himself as a neonatalogist whom immediately states that Sharp has “poorly researched” her book. (red flag that this guy is perhaps an industry exec or someone tied to the billion dollar industry).   She states that there are some uses for the drug, but  the consumers are not aware of the dangers and that needs to change.

~~~~~~

While researching this, I found this link.  People were protesting Monsanto back in 1994….but Bill Clinton was busy in the Oval Office….something about an intern with a blue dress…

Let the Intimidation begin…

by

Another good blog from Diane Ravitch on the bullying in schools…

….not by the kids, mind you, but a teacher under pressure to conform and teach to the test and the principal who, as a commenter put it, has “lost their way”.

As was said–pit the parents and teachers against one another, and *voila*, you have dysfunction….leading to failing schools that can be closed and handed over to the profiteers….

From the blog:

My daughter, who is in the 11th grade, was victimized by her principal and teacher today because she submitted an opt out letter. She was made to feel wrong and unsupportive of her school because she wasn’t going to take the test.

~~~~~~

This is what I was talking about in my previous blog–it can be intimidating even for a parent to speak out–let alone a student who is vulnerable to the teacher’s grades and attitude.

Uppity people who ask questions or protest something they perceive as detrimental are to be dealt with—can’t have that because before you know it, there will be others who will also start asking questions….

 

 

Ripping the Band Aid Off

by

Diane Ravitch has a blog up on the new standard, Common Core for the public schools in NYC.

From The Economist comments section:

the new testing regime encourages a wider opening of the class gulf by giving teachers an incentive to compete for students with strong skills, excellent home support, and private resources to purchase any necessary tutoring to get Junior up to snuff. Who will stand up for the child of a poor single parent who can’t afford Khan Academy tutoring, doesn’t know enough algebra to help, and doesn’t have time to walk her/his child through the mountains of test preparation homework dispensed in the months leading up to this?

~~~~~~~~~~

Word.  The poor kids with no one at home who can help them and no money for tutoring and coming to school hungry because single Mom can’t afford breakfast…depressing….

An incident popped into my head when reading the comments on the link she provides to The Economist (strange that a story on education would end up there, eh?)  Anyway, being 34, the college I wanted to attend had required I take entrance exams a second time (the first time was the SAT’s in h.s.).  Algebra and Trigonometry were part of the exam.  I didn’t take the college prep courses in high school because I didn’t think I’d ever get to go to college (even though I wanted to)….so you could have knocked me over with a feather when the admissions counselor told me that I passed the Math test and could opt out of the pre-Math courses.  I think I actually laughed that I passed them without taking classes….which goes to show that exams shouldn’t have as much weight as they do.  I mean, I got decent grades in Math (B’s)…but did not know the material before taking the class—it would have been a disaster for me to opt-out.  Maybe, just maybe, I had a few Algebra and Trig problems while in h.s., because, if I recall correctly, textbooks at that time had problems for the next grade level at the back of the book, in order to prepare the students for the next year.  This might explain at least some of it.

Additionally, when I was in college, the ADD was bad and even though I studied my butt off for several hours and knew my subject matter, I still only got B’s and sometimes C’s because of poor test taking.  My mind would be all over the place.  This is another reason that testing shouldn’t be given the weight that it does–I knew the material, but you wouldn’t know it by the test.

Also, the university I began at had a much better support system with excellent tutors available to help unravel the Math mysteries.  The university I went to after the initial classes–the one I graduated from–deliberately made Math very difficult.  I think this was to “weed out” the students…after all, most of the professions that pay well involve Math.  If you have a lot of folks who can do Math, well then, you don’t have exclusivity, do you?  Harder to justify higher salaries when there are more folks who can do those jobs.

Lastly, testing aside, parents DO need to take an active role in supplementing their child’s teacher’s efforts.  AND even question their teachers when appropriate.  I had to do this twice –once when my middle child was having difficulty learning to read.  Her 1st Grade teacher was frustrated and going to label her as “stupid”…I could see the handwriting on the wall. I went to the precious gift of the library and checked out books on teaching kids to read, since I didn’t know how to help her—she was getting stuck on the words “a” , “and” and “the”….I luckily (or guided 🙂 found a book on Dyslexia.  I discovered that she was dyslexic.  And I discovered that I was, too.   Dyslexics have a hard time with a, and, the—because they learn to read by visualizing a picture in their head–b-a-l-l is a round thing they can bounce….they can’t picture a, and,the—because they don’t represent any *one* thing.  I checked out a Phonics book and began sitting down with her every night and eventually she *got it*.  She graduated from the same university many years later 😉

The second time I had to question my child’s teachers was when they were going to “Whole Language” — a stupid program that didn’t teach Phonics.  I wouldn’t have it and protested it.  I got a bunch of flack for it, but I went ahead and checked out the Phonics book a second time to help my third child  to read, too.  Incidentally, I also protested a change in class organization, when they were going to make the 2nd graders switch classes….like they were in middle school…to have two different teachers during the day.  I protested that because I believe the younger kids need to have one teacher for consistency…little ones need that security.  I was sent a condescending note that “they were sorry that I wouldn’t be joining them…”  As if everyone else didn’t have a problem with it, so why did I?

Targets of drones not always criminal

by

common dreams has a link up to this McClatchy piece on the targets of drones–an estimated 3,500 people killed.

From the piece:

“The United States has gone far beyond what the U.S. public – and perhaps even Congress – understands the government has been doing and claiming they have a legal right to do,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Notre Dame Law School professor who contends that CIA drone operations in Pakistan violate international law.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary Ellen O’Conell, from that radical leftwing university of Notre Dame.  :p
More:

The administration has declined to reveal other details of the program, such as the intelligence used to select targets and how much evidence is required for an individual to be placed on a CIA “kill list.” The administration also hasn’t even acknowledged the existence of so-called signature strikes, let alone discussed the legal and procedural foundations of the attacks.

~~~~~~~~
Does anyone else see the irony of Diane Feinstein being so anti-gun violence a la Newtown, but apparently thinks drone strikes are okay??
I also have an issue with calling drone strikes “self defense”.  It is self defense when you are face to face with someone and they are coming at you with fists, guns, or knives–then by all means, you have a right to defend yourself.  But hiding a thousand miles away in some darkened room with television monitors while you pull the trigger….um, no…not self defense in my book.  It’s cowardly.

Hazards to furniture workers

by

Common dreams has this up on the hazards of furniture workers.  Be sure to click on the link to the NY Times.  This relates to my post on verbal abuse–she’s not bleeding and bruised–it’s much harder, I think, for the public to see the injuries, even though she now walks with a cane.  It’s amazing that she lasted five years….I wouldn’t last five minutes, being  so hypersensitive now…and I am met with the same disinterest and disbelief when I talk about being hypersensitive to chemicals….you can’t show someone how these chemicals affect you until you’re so bad that you’re bedridden.

I don’t know why they can’t design furniture that doesn’t require gluing.  What is wrong with just thread and needle?  Is glue really required or can a more creative mind come up with a solution that doesn’t require it?

And if it is affecting the workers this way, what does it do to the person who purchases it?  It’s much harder for someone to prove that their furniture is making them ill.  I meet with such resistance from folks who should know better—or at least folks who should make it their business to know this stuff….but alas…

Lastly, as the article explores, what happens if the workers protest too much?  The company will pack up and move overseas…or just find another worker…

From the article:

“There are people lined up out there for jobs,” said John Lyles, a vice president at Franklin, according to testimony by a plant manager in a successful lawsuit in Mississippi brought by four cushion workers who suffered severe nerve damage from the glue. “If they start dropping like flies, or something in that order, we can replace them today.”

~~~~~~~~

God, if that isn’t chilling to read.  In other words, human life is so cheap, we can poison them and there will be more to take their place.  Unbelievable.

Incredibly, OSHA has been inspecting this plant and filing reports of dangerous levels since 1996….and they keep repeating the same story with no results.  Clearly, reading this article, OSHA does not exert its power to shut down these plants.  The article states that it’s a matter of limited resources.  I suspect that it is also unwilling to shut down plants because it would send so many people to the unemployment office.  In this economy, the workers are even more vulnerable and need even greater protection. There are no mentions of unions in this article…so one can assume there are none?

 

 

 

 

Hansen leaving NASA

by

Common Dreams has this up on NASA scientist James Hansen leaving the agency to work actively against climate change.

What’s really depressing about this article is that Hansen has been telling Congress since 1988 that climate change was real and a growing problem.

1988….twenty-five freaking years ago….and we’re still dragging our feet?  It is so depressing at all that has happened since then and how much better off we would be now if action had been taken at that time!

 

Accepting responsibility

by

…is the first step towards correcting the problem….Washington Post hasn’t quite gotten *there* yet.  The media was absolutely culpable for instilling fear into the public and credibility into the Bush Administration where no credibility existed.

What’s worse is that they are still giving air time to Cheney, et al, as if this guy has any credibility at all.

From the New York Times:

Most notably, Mr. Cheney defends his position on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq war and the use of waterboarding with his usual aplomb and deft obfuscation. Other key players, including George W. Bush, have acknowledged mistakes and expressed dismay over decisions that proved misguided. Mr. Cheney says he did nothing wrong and has no regrets.

~~~~~

One incident is almost chilling. Barton Gellman, a journalist and the author of a Cheney biography, recounts how in 2004 Mr. Cheney fought Justice Department lawyers who had determined that the top-secret, warrantless surveillance program that he had pushed for was illegal. Mr. Cheney was so insistent on keeping the wiretaps going that he kept Mr. Bush, then in his re-election campaign, out of the loop until the 11th hour, when two dozen Justice Department lawyers and the F.B.I. director threatened to resign

~~~~~~~~~~

And let’s not forget the profit factor for Cheney.  More here.  Blood on your hands, Dick.

Here’s a good article on those that were promoting the Iraq War through the media.  They use powerful words and the “if you’re not with us, you’re against us…or a fool….”  Hard to go against the grain when put in that context…I tried talking with a friend about it, but she was military and absolutely refused to believe that there was any doubt there were WMD’s.  They wouldn’t lie to her….

The media is very powerful in influencing people.  And the fact that Ronnie Reagan removed the Fairness Doctrine has had huge impacts in our ability to get both sides of a story in order to flush out the truth.  The press is no longer obligated by law to present the whole picture instead of something that suits them.  The fact that in my community there are nothing but rightwing radio announcers is testament to how unfair and unbalanced our media is…

Not only Reagan, but Clinton allowed media consolidation.   The media owners get to promote their own political views and world views without having to air the opposing side’s views.

From the article:

(This is my beef, also, about what happened in Fort Wayne last June–save for one station on Friday night, there was no live broadcast talking about the super storm.  NO ONE was live on the air on the next day, Saturday, telling people where they could go for cooling stations, when the power would be back on, how many people were affected (so folks would know that it was going to be awhile to get power and to plan accordingly.))

 

January 18, 2002 A train carrying hazardous materials derails at 1:30 a.m. in Minot, North Dakota, spilling 210,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia in an incident federal regulators call “catastrophic”. Clear Channel Communications owns six out the seven commercial stations in Minot. Minot authorities say when they called with the warning about the toxic cloud, there was no one on the air who could’ve made the announcement. Clear Channel says someone was there who could have activated an emergency broadcast. But Minot police say nobody answered the phones.