Medical errors kill enough people to fill four jumbo jets a week!

When there is a plane crash in the U.S., even a minor one, it makes headlines. There is a thorough federal investigation, and the tragedy often yields important lessons for the aviation industry. Pilots and airlines thus learn how to do their jobs more safely.

The world of American medicine is far deadlier: Medical mistakes kill enough people each week to fill four jumbo jets. But these mistakes go largely unnoticed by the world at large, and the medical community rarely learns from them. The same preventable mistakes are made over and over again, and patients are left in the dark about which hospitals have significantly better (or worse) safety records than their peers.

Click to read more...

Ex-Blackwater to teach US spies

The Pentagon has awarded Academi, the security company previously known as Blackwater, part of a $20 billion five year contract to train military intelligence agents. It comes despite the firm earlier being fined by a US court for illegal arms trade.

­The US Defense Intelligence Agency announced on Thursday that it would hire six private security companies, including Academi, for the contract. The contractors are to train agents “before they leave on overseas deployments, to provide them with a foundation of hard and soft skills relevant to living and working in hostile and austere environments,” the document says.

Academi declined to comment on the contract when asked by Wired’s Danger Room blog, saying it is not finalized yet.

Click to read more...

President Obama Falsely Claims Fast and Furious Program "Begun Under the Previous Administration"

Asked about the Fast and Furious program at the Univision forum on Thursday, President Obama falsely claimed that the program began under President George W. Bush.

"I think it's important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration," the president said. "When Eric Holder found out about it, he discontinued it. We assigned a inspector general to do a thorough report that was just issued, confirming that in fact Eric Holder did not know about this, that he took prompt action and the people who did initiate this were held accountable."

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com

Click to read more...

You've Felt It Your Entire Life

HELP SUPPORT OUR UPCOMING PROJECT HERE: http://www.shift-project.org/action/

Book Excerpt (The Merging of Science and Spirit): http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/02/18/existential-questions-answered/

http://www.collective-evolution.com

http://www.trueactivist.com/

Brazil’s finance chief attacks US over QE3

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/69c0b800-032c-11e2-a484-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz27302Ay1x

Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, has warned that the US Federal Reserve’s “protectionist” move to roll out more quantitative easing will reignite the currency wars with potentially drastic consequences for the rest of the world.

He said it was instead depressing the dollar and aimed at boosting US exports.

Click to read more...

Prudential Says ‘QE Forever’ May End With Real Estate Hit

Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU)’s chief risk officer said the eventual end of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing may erode the value of assets including commercial property.

“What’s causing our current low interest rates, QE forever and, really, a global malaise, could change very quickly,” Prudential’s Nicholas Silitch said today at a conference sponsored by KPMG International in New York.

The central bank said last week it will expand its holdings of long-term securities with open-ended purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt a month in a bid to cut unemployment. The yield on the 10-year Treasury has dropped to 1.78 percent from 3.29 percent at the end of 2010.

Click to read more...

A Washington Whistle-Blower Tells All

In January 2009, Ted Kaufman, a longtime senior aide to Vice President Joe Biden, was appointed to fill his former boss’s Delaware Senate seat. Jeff Connaughton, another ex-Biden staff member who had gone on to a lucrative lobbying career, went to work for Kaufman as his chief of staff.

Kaufman announced he would serve for only two years, until a special election was held. He would raise no money, kow-tow to no special interests, and generally take no prisoners in an experiment in principled legislating. Connaughton, who by his own description had made a lot of money as a corporate influence peddler, joined this idealistic mission, at least in part to salve a guilty conscience.

Click to read more...

Microsoft Avoided Billions in U.S. Tax, Senate Memo Says

A U.S. Senate committee memo said Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) used aggressive international tax maneuvers to avoid billions of dollars in taxes over the past three years.

The committee memo, released for a hearing today in Washington, said Microsoft used transactions with subsidiaries in Puerto Rico, Ireland, Singapore and Bermuda to save at least $6.5 billion in taxes. In 2008, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) created a series of short-term internal loans that allowed the company to tap its offshore cash for domestic operations without paying taxes, according to the memo.

Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, didn’t accuse the companies of acting illegally, though said he was “highly dubious” that HP was in compliance with the tax law.

Click to read more...

Federal Reserve policies favor the rich

(CNNMoney) -- The Federal Reserve's most recent stimulus is expected to boost home prices and the stock market, but what if you're too poor to invest in either?

The Fed unveiled its third round of stimulus last week. The massive bond-buying initiative, called quantitative easing, aims to prop up the economy through a few key channels -- namely the housing market and thestock market.

Both of those channels skew in favor of Americans who are already in solid financial standing, and it seems the wealthier you are, the more you have to gain.

"Quantitative easing is a blunt tool and cannot really target specific areas of the economy, aside from mortgage rates.

Click to read more...

The NDAA's Indefinite Detention Clause Isn't Dead Yet!!!

On Monday night, a lone appeals court judge reinstated the federal government's controversial indefinite detention law while the court weighs the government's appeal.

Judge Raymond Lohier of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals wrote a one-page order that stayed a judge's decision to block the National Defense Authorization Act without offering any explanation for the temporary stay.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-reinstates-ndaa-2012-9#ixzz26prJxs3l

Occupy Wall Street anniversary marred by arrests and weakening support

Occupy Wall Street's one-year anniversary began with early morning protests at New York's financial centre, but the demonstrations were marred by numerous arrests as activists marched around lower Manhattan.

On 17 September 2011 hundreds had answered a call from Adbusters, the Canadian activist magazine, sparking demonstrations against failing financial systems and the influence of money in politics that spread around the globe. Thousands of protesters took to streets and encampments before high-profile police crackdowns in New York and Oakland signalled a lull that lasted through the winter and beyond.

Click to read more...

Mitt Romney under fire after comments caught on video

Mitt Romney was caught up in a fresh and damaging secret video controversy on Monday night, only hours after his campaign team tacitly admitted it was struggling and was going to have revise its campaign strategy.

Click to read more...

Obama fights for indefinite detention!

Last week, it looked like a controversial provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would be struck down — namely, the ability to indefinitely detain American citizens. In January, a group of seven renowned journalists, activists and thinkers including Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky sued the president over the provision and gained an ostensible victory last week. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest made a permanent injunction of the provision. “In short,” as Hedges noted in his recent Truth Dig column, “she declared the law unconstitutional.” However, the issue of indefinite detention of U.S. citizens is far from closed. The Obama administration instantly challenged Judge Forrest’s decision.

Click to read more...

NDAA: The Obama Administration should be held in contempt of court!

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled in favor of a temporary injunction blocking the enforcement of the authorization for military detention. Today, the war againt the true totalitarian terror won a decisive battle, when in a 112-opinion, Judge Forrest turned the temporary injunction, following an appeal by the totalitarian government from August 6, into a permanent one.

The Obama Administration refuses to say whether or not they are abiding by the judge's ruling!

John Williams: QE3 Will Cause Hyperinflation by 2014

The Federal Reserve is talking about unlimited QE, or money printing, to boost employment. Economist John Williams says, That’s absolutely nonsense. The Fed is just propping up the banks. Williams says, You’re likely going to see a dollar sell-off . . . That should evolve into hyperinflation.

Click to read more...

Federal Reserve announces QE3 to aid US recovery

America's central bank said it will purchase $40bn (£25bn) of mortgage-backed bonds a month to stimulate the housing market and keep long-term interest rates low.

In a major departure from the two previous rounds of stimulus, the Fed said it will persist with the policy until the outlook for the job market improves "substantially".

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 both climbed after one of the most-eagerly awaited decisons from the Fed's rate-setters in months.

Click to read more...

QE3 Decision: Fed Vows To Buy Bonds Until Economy Recovers (Live Blog)

3:52 We’ll bring you a snapshot of the market close, then largely wrap up. Any comments that trickle in later will be added. Notes from tomorrow will likely appear in a separate story. Stay tuned for the closing bell.

3:37 More on the Fed’s enhanced (long-term) expectations: It’s striking that the Fed moved today, even while pumping their estimates, says Capital Economics‘ Paul Ashworth. “The new projections show that officials now expect economic growth to be slightly stronger in 2013 and 2014 and expect the unemployment rate to be marginally lower by end-2014.”

Click to read more...

Arab Fall Becomes Anti-US Blowback As "Turmoil" Spreads To Morocco, Sudan And Tunisia

If 2011's Arab Spring was all about the propaganda "hope" of democracy (driven paradoxically by soaring global good prices as we predicted in early 2011 before the first Tunisian domino toppled), then 2012 Arab Fall, is all about the blowback to US policies and intervention in the region. And while we are amused by the media's narrative that an entire continent can suddenly come to arms against Pax Americana over a YouTube clip, we are confident that what some hate-mongering preacher has to say about Mohammed is about as relevant to what is happening in the Middle East today, as how the global economy performs impact the S&P. Absolutely none.

Click to read more...

US Totalitarianism Loses Major Battle As Judge Permanently Blocks NDAA's Military Detention Provision

Back in January, Pulitzer winning journalist Chris Hedges sued President Obama and the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, specifically challenging the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force or, the provision that authorizes military detention for people deemed to have "substantially supported" al Qaeda, the Taliban or "associated forces." Hedges called the president's action allowing indefinite detention, which was signed into law with little opposition from either party "unforgivable, unconstitutional and exceedingly dangerous."

Click to read more...

House Approves Extension of Secret Surveillance Under FISA

The House on Wednesday reauthorized for five years broad electronic eavesdropping powers that legalized and expanded the George W. Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.

The FISA Amendments Act, (.pdf) which is expiring at year’s end, allows the government to electronically eavesdrop on Americans’ phone calls and e-mails without a probable-cause warrant so long as one of the parties to the communication is believed outside the United States. The communications may be intercepted “to acquire foreign intelligence information.”

Click to read more...