Clearing The Air

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Star Tribune story tells of economic downturn in Twin Cities versus 363 metro areas, they conveniently ignore the local hospitality industry losses

The link to the Star Tribune article is here, however as the Strib typically removes links, we've also saved the story below:

In metro area, growth takes a hit

Last update: September 27, 2007 – 8:39 PM

A new snapshot of U.S. urban economies shows the Twin Cities under a cloud. But it's a picture taken from a distance.

In a study of 363 metro areas, two of every three performed better than Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington in 2005, in the federal government's first attempt to measure the dollar value of all goods and services produced in select U.S. cities.

Slowdowns in construction, finance and insurance, and arts, entertainment and recreation industries left the Twin Cities ranked No. 254 in the experimental database created by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Estimated overall economic growth in the Twin Cities was a meager 1.4 percent, after adjusting for inflation. Nationwide, metro growth averaged 3 percent in 2005.

A chief bright spot for the Twin Cities was information technology, which grew at a 9 percent pace, albeit more slowly than the double-digit gains in each of the three years before. Another major industry, manufacturing, grew at a 3 percent clip -- or more than twice the pace of the overall Twin Cities economy. But manufacturing growth, too, decelerated from earlier years.

MIKE MEYERS

The minor little tidbit of information that the story neglects to mention is the record unprecedented number of closed bars and restaurants in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Bloomington since enactment of smoking bans in early 2005. But Clearing the Air has chronicled 133 closed establishments to date. And with 20-50 employees per closed facility; 2600 - 6500 unemployed workers will have an effect on a local economy.

Keep in mind unemployed individuals, no matter how well intentioned the (smoking ban) law, don't purchase new homes, cars, or other incidental material goods......contributing to the economic downturn.

Minnesota State unemployment figures openly report the job losses of hospitality workers, 2,100 in just one month. However the Star Tribune's editorial agenda openly supported and led the push for smoking bans, of course then the Strib is loathe to highlight their role in destroying the local economy.

One can almost see how the Star Tribune could overlook such a minor detail though, especially since none of the 2,600 - 6500 workers were union members.

And let's not forget the role that pharmaceutical interests (RWJF a division of the Johnson & Johnson Company, maker of Nicoderm, and Nicoderm CQ) and the non-profits they financed (such as American Lung Assoc. of MN etc.) also contributed to damaging the local Twin Cities economy.

I wonder if we'll see an editorial apology anytime soon from Star Tribune?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Johnson & Johnson Co. subsidiary accused of providing illegal kickbacks and payoffs to doctors and surgeons

Johnson & Johnson Company's subsidiary DePuy is just one of the companies under investigation.

...the investigation could end as soon as this summer with a settlement of hundreds of millions of dollars...

.....In one of the most notable (similar) cases, TAP Pharmaceuticals paid $875 million to settle charges in 2001 that it used bribes to get doctors to prescribe one of its cancer treatments.....

"It's legitimately an issue that concerns almost all of us," said William Dowling, a Morristown orthopedic surgeon who sits on the board of directors of the NJ Orthopaedic Society.

Dowling said he was unaware of the details of the federal investigation, but that many doctors had been uncomfortable with the ties between the implant makers and some of his profession's best-known surgeons.

"Universally, we're all opposed to those sorts of arrangements," he said. "It was clear in many respects that these guys were the bought-and-sold guys."

This would not be the first time Johnson & Johnson affiliates have paid off doctors or non-profits in order to boost business interests. Johnson & Johnson's political division the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has provided funding to the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association and many others in excess of $200 million in order to lobby for smoking bans while promoting pharmaceutical nicotine products.

I wonder when the federal government will begin investigating J & J / RWJF's unethical business practices.

Thanks to PharmaFraud for the story tip.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

President Bush vows to veto a bill pushed by smoking ban lobbyists and socialized healthcare advocates

President Bush in one fell swoop proposes common sense action that will not only please those who believe in limited government intervention (free markets) but also those who believe in fiscal responsibility. Liberal lawmakers proposed a $35,000,000,000.00 tax hike to foot the S-CHIPS expansion bill.

The proposed expansion of S-CHIPS (to be vetoed by Bush) helps people with of incomes up to $85,000 get onto the government healthcare dole. In some cases current S-CHIPS enrollees don’t even have children.

Bush's veto promise appeals to those who believe free market structure is the better method to insure families who can afford health insurance. Private free market insurance is better able to keep healthcare costs down as competition keeps costs in check. Universal or socialized health insurance on the other hand answers to nobody; clinics, hospitals, and care providers will continually escalate costs in a socialized healthcare program because there is no competition to keep a lid on unlimited price hikes.

Additionally we all know the stories from Canadian and other socialist countries which routinely encounter months of waiting lists for simple procedures due to the fact that since government covers everybody under a "free healthcare" system, people use the system for every minor incident; hang nails, in-grown toenails, the common cold, etc. which overloads the health provider system due to unreasonably high demand.

The additional appeal to us at Clearing the Air is that the S-CHIPS expansion has been pushed hard by the same tobacco control activists who convince liberal lawmakers and presidential hopeful Mike Hukabee to raise state tobacco taxes and ban smoking in private bars and restaurants which have suffered financially from these intrusive government ordinances. These activists are heavily funded by Johnson & Johnson Company affiliate the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). RWJF funding ($200,000.000.00+) for such laws has less to do with concern for health and welfare than it does to bolster its share value in the Johnson & Johnson Company. Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary ALZA manufactures alternative cigarette products Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ. And RWJF remains one of the largest shareholders of Johnson & Johnson stock, valued at nearly $5 billion worth. RWJF was also founded by the Johnson & Johnson Company, sharing some of the same executives and board members.

So President Bush and Republicans have the chance to bring some fiscal responsibility back to Washington, while at the same time denying pharmaceutical special interests the rent seeking laws they desire....it's a win win as far as we are concerned.

Update: The Heartland Institute points out how Bush's veto of S-CHIPS helps Minnesota's poor.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Scientists agree......epidemiological studies are worthless

Article found here:

Stan Young, a statistician at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C. "He (the average person) reads about coffee causing and not causing cancer -- so many contradictory findings he begins to think, 'I don't trust anything these scientists are saying.' "

These critics say the reason this keeps happening is simple: Far too many of these epidemiological studies -- in which the habits and other factors of large populations of people are tracked, sometimes for years -- are wrong and should be ignored.

In fact, some of these critics say, more than half of all epidemiological studies are incorrect.

The studies can be influential. Often, in response to them, members of the public will go out and dose themselves with this vitamin or that foodstuff.

And the studies also influence medical practice -- doctors, the critics note, encouraged women to take hormones after menopause long before their effects were tested in randomized clinical trials, the gold standard of medical research.

Some of epidemiology's critics are calling for stricter standards before such studies get reported in medical journals or in the popular press.

Young, one of the foremost critics, argues that epidemiological studies are so often wrong that they are coming close to being worthless.

And remember it is these "worthless studies" that lawmakers based their smoking ban laws upon.....a seemingly harmless trend until you realize the number of businesses and jobs eliminated in just one metropolitan area.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

States have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gas emissions from autos

A federal judge ruled (per this article) that:

...states have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gas emissions from autos.......(they further conclude) the only way to cut CO emissions is to burn less fuel.......

This however, is not true, one company is working on a solution which eliminates vehicle exhaust emissions up to 95% without changing the fuel consumption configuration at all.

We'll have to see if the judge's ruling has a pre-ordained agenda, or if a reduction of emissions by up to 95% will put automakers into compliance with this ruling, if that's the case then the Combustion Engine Emissions Eliminator (CE3) looks to be the solution.

There is not a consensus, the debate is not over

Hundreds of Scientists Have Published Evidence Countering Man-Made Global Warming Fears (link)

Al Gore was heard to say ".....oops, my bad...."

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Tobacco control's demand for higher tobacco taxes fuels cigarette smuggling activities

Can links to terrorism be far behind?

Now, an operative investigating cigarette smuggling has come up missing in a very ominous place.

It may be time for U.S. lawmakers to stop listening to tobacco control activists who are unwittingly contributing to international terrorism.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Al Qaeda smoking ban is one of the reasons Iraqis are rejecting Islamic extremists views

Stumping in Iowa Fred Thompson informed listeners an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side.

"They said, 'You gotta quit smoking,'" Thompson explained to a questioner asking about progress in Iraq during a town hall-style meeting.

Thompson said the smoking ban and terror tactics Al Qaeda used to oppress women and intimidate local leaders pushed tribes in western Anbar Province to support U.S. troops.

Apparently pro-smoking ban activists and anti free market lawmakers in the U. S. share some very similar traits with Al Qaeda. And don't forget it was Hitler (an ally to Muslim extremists) who enacted the first smoking ban.

Clearing the Air hopes Al Qaeda wannabe lawmakers here in America take heed of this lesson.

Update: During U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker's testimony before Congress today he confirmed that Al Qaeda enforced their smoking ban in Iraq by cutting off fingers of Iraqi civilians. Smoking ban activists in this country are equally as extreme.....eliminating, businesses, jobs, and livelihoods.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Combustion Engine Emissions Eliminator (CE3) test results video

CE3 emissions testing 9-9-07

For additional information about reducing vehicle exhaust emissions see www.ce3.net

In Osama bin Laden's latest rambling he states something that indicates he is either ignorant of history, or hopes that we are

On page 2 of the translated text, bin Laden states:

......the holocaust of the Jews was carried out by your bretheren in the middle of Europe, but had it been closer to our countries, most of the Jews would have been saved by taking refuge with us.....

History tells us though, that Muslims had a more active role in the extermination of the Jews than bin Laden lets on:

"....At the Nuremberg Trials, Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny (subsequently executed as a war criminal) testified: The Mufti (Mohammad Amin al-Husseini) was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan......"

According to documentation from the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, the Nazi Germany SS helped finance al-Husseini's efforts in the 1936-39 revolt in Palestine. Adolf Eichmann actually visited Palestine and met with al-Husseini at that time and subsequently maintained regular contact with him later in Berlin.....He (Mohammad Amin al-Husseini) then spent the rest of World War II as Hitler's special guest in Berlin "

Perhaps though, it's hard to get high speed internet connections huddled in the base of a cave. I for one however, think this is an intentional oversite by bin Laden......hoping that we in the west are too ignorant to research the facts.
Sorry Osama, it looks to me as if you were in bed with Nazi Germany & Hitler all along.....and as a matter a fact it is not a stretch at all to say that the war on Islamic terrorism is merely a continuation of the hostilities and atrocities started in World War II Nazi Germany.

One additional noteworthy fact: The Grand Mufti (Mohammad Amin al-Husseini) was the uncle to recently deceased PLO leader Yassir Arafat (bottom page of link). Thus his vision, teachings, and idealogy continue to inspire and lead the Muslim world.

In a related story neo-Nazi gang members are arrested in Israel.

Follow red links for supporting data

Friday, September 07, 2007

Osama bin Laden voices displeasure with the United States Democratic Party

One thing is clear, if bin Laden were voting in America's presidential election he would definitely vote Democrat. Look at it from his perspective, if you want to terrorize the world in the name of Islam; you need a weak U.S. military which won't interfere......except for a symbolic aspirin factory bombing now and again. And a weak U.S. military with an attitude of cowardice in the face of war seems to be part of the Democratic party platform.

Osama bin Laden takes the Democrats to task because if there is one message they have consistently delivered, it is that they are the party of defeat. Daily, Democratic members of the U.S. Senate & House proclaim that we have been defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are incorrect of course, but Democrats cling to the hope that if their pessimism is repeated in the mainstream media long enough, theirs will become a self-fulfilling prophecy; if that doesn't work then they'll threaten to cut-off funding to our troops.

Yet Osama bin Laden's political party of choice still has not delivered on that promise of defeat and withdrawal.....thus drawing harsh criticism found in his latest videotape to the west:

"......the American people put them in power, and so far they have done nothing......"

The Democrats in congress had better implement their immediate plans for defeat & withdrawal else bin Laden might demand a political recall.

Filed under: When you cast a vote for the Democratic Party.......you cast a vote for Osama bin Laden.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Coyote Grille closed due to smoking ban

Coyote Grille's management in Brooklyn Center, MN. left no doubt as to the cause of their business closing, a note on their front door reads:

Unfortunately on March 31, 2005 a smoking ban was executed and our business suffered and has never recovered.

For a list of the 300+ other Twin City area bar & restaurant closings since smoking bans were enacted click here:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Johnson & Johnson Company's partner RWJF gets involved in the presidential race by lobbying for universal healthcare

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is, for all intents and purposes, the political wing of the Johnson & Johnson Company as outlined here.

Johnson & Johnson is in the business of selling pharmaceuticals, drugs, over the counter healthcare products, and medical devices. As such, it is in their best interest to make sure their potential customers have healthcare insurance coverage to ensure that payment for their goods and services are handled in an expedient manner......socialized healthcare coverage helps streamline that revenue process.

So in their selfish business interests Johnson & Johnson thru the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have partnered with some apparently unbiased non-profits to push for a universal health insurance program........look for them to fund the candidate or party which more earnestly pushes the socialized insurance debate. In this article the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, and the AARP have partnered to force the issue. And here, RWJF relishes their involvement in efforts to defeat private health insurance programs.

In the past, Clearing the Air readers may have noticed our tireless efforts to expose J & J / RWJF's reason for funding the smoking ban agenda. Yet many in the non-smoking community couldn't be more apathetic. That apathy however, has allowed the largest drug manufacturer (J & J) and their political foundation (RWJF) to hone their rent seeking skills.......those lobbying efforts however and their effects on the community, are precisely why citizens of all demographics need to get involved in defeating these special interests.

Also visit our sponsors at bottom of webpage

Boycott these special interests (J & J) who destroyed the hospitality industry & jobs

Why does UCSF researcher Stanton Glantz support smoking bans?

The beginning of a revolution

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