By James Donahue

With all of the problems inherited by President Barack Obama, we recognize that it may take his administration some time to expose the many layers of corruption imposed by the Bush gang and administrations before that, and because of lobbying by big business.

Among the many “wrongs” screaming for repair is the rule imposed by Big Pharma and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the dietary supplement industry that prohibits the publication of possible benefits gained by consuming various vitamins, minerals, mushrooms and other natural food supplements.

This rule has been so strictly enforced that the commission has established its own form of a police force, complete with judge and jury to deal with offenders. A report in Natural News noted that the FTC judges in a “private” kangaroo court in Washington, D.C. “render decisions against (dietary supplement companies) without using any commonly-accepted legal standards . . . It is essentially a military court where you are considered guilty until proven innocent.”

Does this sound familiar?

The Natural News report stated that during 2008 the FTC sent threatening demands to 130 companies selling dietary supplements, and specifically targeted organizations selling anti-cancer supplements. These supplements were probably not touted as cancer cures, but merely things like designed to help build the human immune system or increase the bulk in the foods eaten so proper functioning of the body would reduce the risk of cancer.

Combinations like saw palmetto, stinging nettle and lycopene have been shown to improve bladder function in older men. And glucosamine and chondroitin are promoted as supplements that help repair cartilage between aging bone joints.

Indeed, there is a long list of natural supplements, including marijuana, that have been found to help keep the body operating smoothly and preventing frequent costly trips to a doctor’s office. After nearly every trip to see a doctor, we find ourselves depleting our bank accounts buying prescription medicines that sometimes cause more harm than good.

That I have dared to post such information in this story probably makes me a violator of federal law. If my stories stop flowing in the next few days, it may mean that I too have been apprehended by the FTC police and stripped of my right to free speech.

The twisted law gives the FTC the right to confiscate banking and financial records, drag the violator into court, confiscate inventory, and toss the offender in prison. This is all done by a kangaroo court which operates outside the laws of the land.

Natural News called the FTC’s actions “a form of regulatory terrorism” and “a quest to destroy the nutritional supplements industry.” The story warned that there appears to be a designed effort to thrust “the American people into an era of nutritional illiteracy that would put them at the sole mercy of the conventional (pharmaceutical) industry. This, in turn, would promote the conventional medical treatments for such things as cancer that offer poison, surgery and radiation, all earning high profits for the cancer treatment industry.

Of course the argument supporting the FTC clamp-down is that the claims by nutritional supplement shops are not based on scientific study and that none of the supplements have been approved by the government for medical use. This is a shallow argument. There has been nothing to stop the Food and Drug Administration from testing these supplements, and in some cases, they have been tested and found worthy.

The other argument by the nutritional supplement industry is that these products have never been offered as a cure for anything. It is known that when people believe something is making them healthy, even if it is no more than a placebo, they are generally living in good health.

This writer dares at this point to boast that we have been a regular consumer of Vitamin C. And we can safely say that we have not suffered either a cold or a bout of influenza for at least the last 20 of those years. Was it the vitamin, or just a mental refusal to allow disease to ruin my days? At any rate, we are a strong supporter of nutritional supplements and we hope Obama will uncover this wicket layer of the evil onion very soon.

It would seem that the high ranking officials of the FTC would know that what they are doing is wrong and clean up their own dung heap before Obama has to do it for them.

If you think this could not happen in America, guess again. This is how close we came to total tyranny under the presidency of George W. Bush. For many caught up in the insane War Against Terror, War on Drugs, or the undeclared Wars Against Dietary Supplements and Alternative Fuels and Carbon Emission Control, the federal police were already at the cusp. The election of Obama appears to have happened in the nick of time.