Today's Stories

November 19, 2009

Christopher Ketcham
The Dumbest Newspapers at the Center of the World

Shamus Cooke
A Fraudulent Jobs Summit

John V. Walsh
Impotent in China

John A. Murphy
Nader v. Dodd

Jayne Lyn Stahl
Obama's Gray World

November 18, 2009

Uri Avnery
A Religious Scoundrel

John Ross
Hot Oil!

Conn Hallinan
Strategic Towns: Why Gen. McChrystal's Plan Will Fail

Mike Whitney
Obama's China Junket

Ray McGovern
The Bogus Success of the Surge

Nelson P. Valdés
Cyber Cuba: Internet, Broadband and Foreign Policy

Ramzy Baroud
Globalization Unchecked

Ron Ridenour
Tamil Eelam: the Historic Right to Nationhood

November 17, 2009

Mike Whitney
Let's Get Fiscal

Jayne Lyn Stahl
Double Crossed: War Vets Deported

Brian M. Downing
Do They Subscribe to GQ at the Pentagon?

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Two-Tiered Justice System

Joanne Mariner
A First Look at the Military Commisions Act

Dean Baker
Obama's Nuclear Option on the Yuan

Martha Rosenberg
Pig Hell at Wal-Mart Supplier

Danny Weil
Fear in Nicaragua

David Macaray
Retail Sales as Combat

Laura Flanders
Buried Bonanza for Over-Builders

Walter Brasch
Rush to Judgment on Terror Trials

November 16, 2009

Alan Nasser
Obama's Flawed Case Against Single Payer

Jonathan Cook
Campus Watch Copy Cats

Mark Weisbrot
Obama, China and the Dollar

Carol Miller
We Need Health Care, Not Insurance

Gary Leupp
The Andolan in Kathmandu and the Revolution to Follow

Harry Clark
Justice Goldstone at Brandeis

Ray McGovern
Shining a Light on the Roots of Terrorism

Norman Solomon
California Democrats Urge Obama to Leave Afghanistan

Ron Ridenour
Genocide in Sri Lanka

Norm Kent
Doctors Light Up

Brenda Norrell
Torture Resisters Arrested at Fort Huachuca

November 13-15, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
A Man in a Hundred

Patrick Cockburn
Meet Our Afghan Ally: Stealing Money, Selling Heroin and Raping Boys

Tariq Ali
Short Cuts in Afghanistan

Douglas Lummis
Obama, Hatoyama and Okinawa

Vijay Prashad
Can the Major Speak?

Carl Ginsburg
Cornering the Market on Ambition

Manuel García, Jr.
The Purpose is Pork

Rannie Amiri
The Disastrous Presidency of Mahmoud Abbas

Mary Lynn Cramer
Death By Denial: the Militarization of Mental Health

Fred Gardner
Pot Doc Down

Dave Lindorff
Health Care Reform: DOA

Robert Jensen
How I Stopped Hating Thanksgiving and Learned to be Afraid

David Macaray
Wal-Mart Death Stampede Revisited

Corporate Crime Reporter
Exposing Timberland: Nike Foe Jeff Ballinger Zeros in on a New Target

Ron Jacobs
No More Star Spangled Eyes

David Model
NATO's Chimerical Enemy in Afghanistan

John V. Walsh
Godless China: What Obama Will Find

Jon Mitchell
Beggars' Belief

Stuart Easterling
Blaming the Narcos in Mexico

Dan Bacher
Big Oil Takes Over Marine "Protection" in California

Franklin Lamb
Lebanese Students Advise Obama on How to Get It Right

Farzana Versey
Moderns, Models and Martyrs

Charles R. Larson
War, Peace and Paramilitaries in Colombia

Saul Landau
The Coen Bros. Brutalize Job

David Yearsley
When the Cirque Meets the Beatles

Lorenzo Wolff
At the Side of the Frontman

Poets' Basement
Blaine, Rivas and Cox

November 12, 2009

Robert Weissman
Maniacal Deregulation

Franklin Spinney
The Afghan War Question

Nadia Hijab
After Fort Hood

Afshin Rattansi
Night Vision: Why US Sanctions on Syria Will Kill American Soldiers

Paul Craig Roberts
America's Dismal Future

Ralph Nader
Failing the People on Health Care

Belén Fernández
Tourists of the Honduran Counter-Revolution

Allan J. Lichtman
A National Peacemaker's Day

Dave Lindorff
President Peacenik's War

Jayne Lyn Stahl
Headline of the Year

November 11, 2009

Andrew Cockburn
The Crafting of a Loophole

Mike Whitney
A Small "d" Depression

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Where's the Jobs Stimulus?

Jeff Nygaard
Iranian Irrationality? Maybe Not

Stewart J. Lawrence
Honduran Regime Reneges on Political Deal

James Ridgeway
The End of the Little Red Cars: Memories of East Berlin

Eamonn McCann
Blood on Their Hands

Michael Ortiz Hill
Unbecoming War and Terrorism

Shepherd Bliss
From Oklahoma City to Fort Hood

Walter Brasch
"This is Jenna Bush Reporting ... "

November 10, 2009

Ellen Cantarow
Heroism in a Vanishing Landscape

Dean Baker
How to Raise $140 Billion a Year From Wall Street Banks

Rose Ann DeMoro
The Truth About the House Health Care Bill

Ramzy Baroud
Inch by Inch, House by House: How Israel Won the Settlement Battle...Again

Peter Lee
The Dalai Lama Sticks His Thumb in the Dragon's Eye

Dave Lindorff
Blaming the Workers

Roberto Rodriguez
Running Past PTSD (Or My Susto Profundo)

Winslow T. Wheeler
The Self-Dismembering F-35

Alan Farago
The Rising Tide

Joseph Grosso
The Legacy of Albert Parsons

November 9, 2009

Patrick Cockburn
Leave Afghanistan to the Afghans

Linn Washington
Fox Finds a New Black Boogeyman

Carl Ginsburg
To be Young and Unemployed Forever

Jeff Leys
War Funding, 2010

John A. Murphy
Can Lieberman Save Single Payer? Why Progressives Should Back a Filibuster

John Halle
Bard and the Lobby: Final Thoughts on the Kovel Affair

Bouthaina Shaaban
Clinton Dances With Netanyahu

James Ridgeway
Heath Care: Winning a Battle, Losing the War

Dave Lindorff
The Kafka Economy

David Macaray
The Philadelphia Transit Strike

Stephen Fleischman
The Tea Party System

Website of the Day
Cap-and-Trade: The Huge Mistake

November 6-8, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Too Fat to Fight

Mark Grueter
Inside the American University of Iraq

Paul Craig Roberts
The Evil Empire

Patrick Cockburn
Friendly Fire

Gareth Porter
Karzai's Cabinet of Warlords

Mike Whitney
The Battle of Seattle, 10 Years Later

James Bovard
How the Media Enables Government Lies

Dean Baker
Don't Touch the Banks!

Robert Lawless
Empires and the Sullying of Anthropology

Saul Landau
Afghanistan: a War Without Logic

Jayne Lyn Stahl
Black Ops and Fort Hood

Stephanie Westbrook
My Memories of Fort Hood

M. Shahid Alam
How Eurocentric Are You?

Marc Levy
Walking With Mr. Muhammad

Franklin Lamb
Obama's Mid-East Mess

Ron Jacobs
A New Map of Hell

David Ker Thomson
Afternoon With Tulip

John V. Whitbeck
Moment of Truth

Julien Mercille
Drugs and Afghanistan: the UN's Misleading Report

Rannie Amiri
Egypt's Next Unelected President?

John Ross
Legalize It!

David Michael Green
Can You Hear Us Now?

Carl Finamore
Strike One for Hotels in San Francisco

Farzana Versey
The Farce of Fatwas and Political Expediency

Missy Comley Beattie
No to Single Payer, Yes to Prayer?

Charles R. Larson
Business as Usual in India

David Yearsley
Anna Magdalena, Music and the Art of Dying

Kim Nicolini
"Paranormal Activity:" a DIY Horror Film

Poets' Basement
Three Poems by Devreaux Baker

November 5, 2009

Pam Martens
The Fire Sale of America

Vijay Prashad
The Great Heretic

Brian Gallagher
The Soldiers From Standard Oil: Harvard, ROTC and American Foreign Policy

Norman Solomon
The Next Phase in Health Care Apartheid

Nadia Hijab
The Battle for Palestinian Representation

Joseph Shansky
And the Winner in Honduras is ... the United States?

Andy Thayer
Questions and Answers From Maine

Tracy Rosenberg
Pacifica and the Barbarians Who Pay the Bills

Website of the Day
All Folked Up

November 4, 2009

Stan Cox
The Inflated Promise of Natural Gas

Andy Worthington From Gitmo to Palau: Who are the Uighurs?

Robert Weissman
The Medicare-for-All Moment

Susan Galleymore
Of Veterans and Volunteers

Ralph Nader
Hoh's Afghanistan Warning

Michael Leonardi
Italy's Secret Ships of Poison

Bitta Mistofi
Death to No One: Isolating and Taunting Iran Will Only Empower the Regime

Robert Bryce
From Lahore to Copenhagen

Martha Rosenberg
Is Your Doctor's Continuing Ed Funded by Drug Makers?

Dave Lindorff
Democrats Crash and Burn

Website of the Day
Single-Payer Backtrackers

November 3, 2009

Patrick Cockburn
The Delegitimization of Karzai

Mike Whitney
Why the Crisis Isn't Going Away

Franklin C. Spinney
Katrina and the Paralysis of Fear

Laura Carlsen
The Little Coup That Couldn't

Serge Halimi
Don't Blame the Internet

John Stanton
Social Decay in America

Sophia Weeks
A Guatemalan Lament

Dave Lindorff
Country Joe, Kenny Rogers and Obama

November 2, 2009

Steven Higgs
Autism Spikes, Toxins Suspected

Ishmael Reed
White in America: Behind the Scenes at CNN

David Macaray
UAW Members Vote Down Ford; and the Media Attacked the Union

Bouthaina Shaaban
Settler Colonialism: Return to the Middle Ages

David Michael Green
Coming to Get You

David Swanson
The Two Percent Robustness

Ellen Brown
Cutting Wall Street Out

Adam Federman
Trading the Watershed to Trash the Catskills

James McEnteer
Doppleganger Politics: Star Wars, Clone Wars

Stephen Fleischman
Foot in the Door: Capitalism and Health Care

Website of the Day
Secret California Park Giveaway

October 30 - Nov. 1, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Long Gaze of the State

Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Facing Down the Machine: Mike Roselle Draws a Line

Carl Ginsburg
Living in the Shadow of Yankee Stadium

Mike Whitney
Obama Goes Wobbly Over More Stimulus

Joe Bageant
The Iron Cheer of Empire

Gareth Porter
Security By Warlords: the CIA's Afghan Payroll

Saul Landau
The Cuban Embargo

Anthony DiMaggio
Conspiracy, Inc.: Wild Tales From the Reactionary Right

Dave Lindorff
Happy Talk Amid the Wreckage: Stocks Up, Jobs Down

Rannie Amiri
The Spooks of Beirut

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Afghan Travelogue

Jayne Lyn Stahl
Who Will Reform the Health Care Reform?

Rev. William E. Alberts
God's Favorite Team (and Nation and Religion)

Alvaro Huerta
The Abominable Mr. Dobbs

Martha Rosenberg
Marketing Drugs to Psychoneurotics

Binoy Kampmark
Don't Give Us Your Wretched: Refugee Policy in OZ

Norm Kent
Not Just Zig-Zag Any More: Medical Marijuana Goes Mainstream

Charles R. Larson Roth's "The Humbling:" Nothing Like a Novel From an Old Pro

Ron Jacobs
One Man's Truth, Another Man's Lies

David Yearsley
Not Loud Enough by Half

Lorenzo Wolff
The Vulnerability of Lauryn Hill

Kim Nicolini
"Big Fan:" Football, Class and Sexuality in America

Poets' Basement
Davies, Heyen and Orloski

Website of the Weekend
Coal Country Music

October 29, 2009

Michael Neumann
Criticism of Israel: a Wonderful Hiding Place

Mike Whitney
Housing Rebound? Not So Fast

Gary Leupp
Matthew Hoh Speaks Truth to Power

Conn Hallinan
Roman Roads and Modern Emperors

Marshall Auerback
Obama's Bogus Populism: Pay Curbs and Bank Loans

Laura Flanders
Palin's Pet Doug Hoffman Has Taliban Ties

Eamonn McCann
The War Criminal Vote: Blair or Karadzic for EU President?

David Macaray
Strange Invaders: Can Ignorance and Arrogance Win Hearts and Minds?

Mark Weisbrot
When Small Countries Lead the Way

Stephen Soldz
Psychologist Complicity in Torture Challenged

Christopher Brauchli
Will the Pope Bring the Taliban Into His Flock?

Website of the Day
The USS Liberty Affair and the Problem of Truth in History

October 28, 2009

Moshe Adler
How to Reduce Unemployment, Rebuild the Middle Class and Free Ourselves From Wall Street

Dave Lindorff
America's Drug Crisis: Brought to You by the CIA

Frank Joseph Smecker
Agaisnt Prometheus: an Interview with Derrick Jensen on Science and Technology

Alexandra Early
What a "Jobless" Recovery Means for Young Workers

M. Shahid Alam
Israeli Exceptionalism

Vijay Prashad
Sahelian Blowback: What's Happening in Mali?

John Ross
Three Years Later, Brad Will is Still Dead

Franklin Lamb
A Rare Victory for Lebanon's Palestinians

Gregory Travis
The Dismal Science: Elinor Ostrom's Nobel

Susan Galleymore
Peace Cycle to Palestine

Website of the Day
Newspaper Decline, a Graphic Display

October 27, 2009

Mike Whitney
Black Tuesday and How We Got Out of It

Patrick Cockburn
Bombs Will Go Off in Baghdad, Whether the US is There or Not

Stewart J. Lawrence
Honduran Coup Myths Dispelled

Alan Farago
Power Plays in Florida: Rate Increases, Nukes and Deception

Ralph Nader
Obama: Form Letters and Business as Usual

Dave Lindorff
Pentagon Dirty Bombers: DU in America

Bouthaina Shaaban
The Danger of Towing the Line Behind Israel

Brian M. Downing Elections in Afghanistan, the Second Time Around

Iain Boal
How You Can Save Pacifica

Carl Finamore
Hotel Workers and the Law of Momentum

Jayne Lyn Stahl
Here Comes That Third Party: Palin and the Constitutionalists

Website of the Day
How Bank of America Charges for Perfect Credit

October 26, 2009

Bill Quigley /
Deborah Popowski
When Gitmo and Abu Ghraib Come Home

Paul Craig Roberts
Are You Ready for the Next Crisis?

Uri Avnery
A Tsunami Called Goldstone

Mike Whitney
Will the Dollar Remain the World's Reserve Currency in Five Years?

Michael Snedeker
The Execution of Cameron Willingham

Shamus Cooke
Obama's Dirty War on Immigrants

David Michael Green
Paranoia for Breakfast

Martha Rosenberg
Gagging Michael Pollan

Patrick Bond
Gridlock on the Way to Copenhagen

Binoy Kampmark
Heading for the Tiber

Website of the Day
Goldman Sachs Abandons Kittens

November 19, 2009

Good Faith Practitioners

Reputable MDs Buy NorCal Health Care

By FRED GARDNER

Doctors Philip A. Denney and Michael Gitter and businessman Omar Salah are buying NorCal Healthcare, the chain of cannabis-consultation offices whose founder, Hany Assad, has had his license revoked. Denney, 61, will be seeing NorCal patients in Oakland as of today (Nov. 19). He is past president of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, and widely respected within the field. Denney will continue to see patients two days a week in Carmichael at the office he shares with Robert Sullivan, MD.

Gitter, 65, who has offices in Redding and Lake Forest, will recruit more doctors to help staff NorCal. Assad had been the sole MD, flying from city to city in his own small plane. He employed a nurse practitioner in Oakland and Ukiah, and a physician's assistant in Arcata to examine patients and update charts. Assad saw patients himself in Bakersfield, and it was in this context that he conferred an ADD diagnosis on an 18-year-old after a work-up that the medical board deemed inadequate.

"The reason NorCal needed to be rescued was not because of the mid-level practitioners," says Denney, referring to the nurse practioner and PA. "The use of mid-levels in a cannabis practice is perfectly appropriate. There's still a stigma that keeps physicians away from the field, and perhaps millions of patients who could benefit from cannabis as medicine and need the service [a consultation leading to a doctor's approval]." Denney will supervise NorCal's mid-levels to ensure that patients are examined and records kept according to accepted medical standards.

The medical board insists on a "good-faith examination" prior to a cannabis recommendation. This is how Dr. Denney interprets that vague requirement:

"The patient sits down and you take a history. 'How old are you? What do you do for a living? What medical problem brings you to see us today? Do you have a history of other illness? Have you had previous surgeries? Are you currently taking medications? What are you allergic to?' Etc., etc. With a new patient you have to ask about family history and do a brief 'review of systems.' That involves asking, 'Do you have any vision problems? Hearing problems? Headaches? Knee problems? Any problems with your teeth? Back problems? Chest problems? Cough?' You go down the list. I like doing it verbally because the interaction with the patient can be revealing. Most doctors do it by questionnaire.

"After taking a history and reviewing what records are available, the practitioner conducts a physical examination. It can be fairly focused and brief. It includes complete vital signs -height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate and quality, pain assessment and body-mass index. My practice involves a head-to-toe -and this is what the mid-levels will do for NorCal under my supervision. For a new patient I look in your throat, I look in your ears, I check your pupils, I check your scalp, I check the range of motion in your eyes, I palpate your neck, I look for thyroid lymph nodes. Depending on the circumstances I may listen to your carotid arteries. I will certainly listen to your chest, your heart, check your peripheral reflexes and strength. I typically do a Romberg exam, meaning you stand up with your eyes closed and your feet together. I ask patients to squat. If you have back pain I'll do a straight leg-raising test and test the strength and sensation in your toes. If you have a history of chronic Hepatitis C I'm going to lay you down and feel your liver. I only occasionally do a genital exam. I have done one rectal exam -on a patient who had had extensive rectal surgery.

"Then I -or the mid-level- would have a discussion with the patient about cannabis. 'How much do you use? How does it help you? Adverse effects Has it ever gotten you in trouble? Any current issues with it? Etc. etc.' We typically have a discussion about the benefits and alternatives.  We have to formulate a treatment plan- another vague term. I typically write 'Okay for cannabis for one year. Continue primary care. Call or come in if any questions or problems.'

"And then of course the exam has to be properly recorded in the patient's chart."

Under Assad, NorCal was charging new patients $125; renewals, which were available by phone, cost $100. The new owners plan to charge new patients $150 -"for superior service," says Denney- and have yet to define their policy on renewals. The ballpark price for a medical practice is one year's net income. Assad was reportedly asking $1.2 million.

Assad Defends His Approach

Hany Assad, MD, the prolific issuer of cannabis approvals whose license was revoked Oct. 23, emailed a response to our account of his downfall in CounterPunch (which, he acknowledged, "did not depart from the facts.") His English is funky but some of his points are well taken. The first refers to SW, an 18-year-old alcoholic whose cannabis use Assad authorized after diagnosing him with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). SW's parents complained to the Medical Board of California (MBC) which, after an investigation and a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), determined that Assad had not conducted a proper exam to support the ADD diagnosis. (The parents pressured the kid into testifying against Assad.  Could the family dynamic have something to do with his problems?)

1 RE the charge of the way I have approached for evaluating and then making the new diagnosis of ADD. The patient while under oath announced, as a surprise to the ALJ and to everyone at the court at that time, that a diagnosis of ADD was made 4 months (about 19 months after my diagnosis was made) prior to that hearing through an expert psychiatrist out of Kaiser with tests that complies with the "Standard of Care". That was not taken into consideration by the judge. Did she missed or just ignored it? Is there any questions will be asked why that diagnosis was missed by his treating psychiatrists at Kaiser for many years till Hany Assad can make it without following the standard of care???

2 RE charge of failure to obtain 'Medical Records' from treating physician. It is a known fact that the previous medical records for a patient are only critical within first 12 hours of treatment on emergency setting ER or ICU.

3 Charge of illegible hand writing in the records.  Still I prefer to have my treating physician caring about my health and the best to be done at the time allowed vs caring to have nicely written medical records for the satisfaction of the MBC.

4 It is a fact that if the case against a physician after investigation initiated by a consumer is closed no cost recovery will be done. On the other hand, if MBC can find a way to file charges through their paid AG Office they can request cost recovery to be paid by the physician as a condition of his probation. YES cost recovery of exaggerated expenses. I have to admit that I had mine at that time at a sale price with discount of 50% so I had to pay only $50,000 initially then $4000 for each year of probation. I found accepting a deal of that nature instead of going to a trial by an administrative Judge paid by MBC is the least harmful of the two options. FYI MBC had to stop that "Bully" strategies after the Precedential case of Dr Mikuriya.

5 The only interview by MBC for me in the presence of my attorney was conducted by 2 ignorant investigators asking me how did I evaluate my patient. Yes two ignorant police officers reading questions from a piece of paper in their hands. I got the impression that one of the Gods (one of the 12 members of MBC) dictated them these questions in a hurry while awaiting for the elevator. It is sad and actually disgusting to find interrogation of a physician by an agency licensing already almost 200,000 physicians could not find one of them to conduct that meeting.

6 RE safety for the patients. I have to clarify that for 30 years as a physician who treated thousands of patient each year there was not even one case RE safety of the patient. Many of them in ICU or ER, before that case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sincerely,
Hany Assad

Fred Gardner edits O'Shaughnessy's, The Journal of Cannabis in Clinical Practice. He can be reached at fred@plebesite.com

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