Contrary to recent media reports, the Brazilian Blowout hair treatment is safe for use.

Oregon OSHA and Federal OSHA had already attacked Brazilian Blowout’s product, steering the media to focus on faulty aspects of their respective studies, and burying the truth  –  that the product does not release formaldehyde in amounts that exceed state or federal short-term or long-term exposure limits.

Enter Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D – 3 – OR).  Ontheissues.org labels him a “hard-core Liberal”, and you know what that means when it comes to anything involving chemicals or the environment.   Rep. Blumenauer sponsored nonsensical bills like HR 3311 that taxes drivers based on miles driven; a ludicrous bill to jump-start the funding of streetcars; a bill to establish under-the-radar death panels; a bill providing environmental education grants for outdoor experiences (huh?); and even one quashing free speech by attempting to ban a website promoting the perfectly safe Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

So Rep. Blumenauer reads about OSHA’s nonsense in the media and, because he’s a politician, doesn’t do his research, either.  Nor does he bother contacting the company to get their side of the story.   Instead, he grandstands by penning a letter to the Food and Drug Administration asking that they recall the product — a product already proven to meet OSHA standards!

I asked Rep. Blumenauer’s press secretary, Derek Schlickeisen, about this approach to policy.  His assertion was that politicians “can’t have a chemist on staff”, and thus rely on OSHA’s scientists to bring incidents like this to light.  When I mentioned that the company-funded study by Health Science Associates showed formaldehyde levels below OSHA standards, he inferred that the study held little weight because it was company funded.

Yet why is it that OSHA’s results are given any more credibility, especially when OSHA caused a panic based entirely on a faulty sample?  Are we to believe that OSHA scientists are somehow free of ideological bias?  Kermit McCarthy, one of the authors of the Oregon OSHA study, “likes” hard-core Liberal Sen. Ron Wyden according to his Facebook page.  Why isn’t his bias questioned?  If anything, a government worker is likely more biased than a private company to insert bias, because his very job depends on his work generating a result that permits the government to do something.  Otherwise, the agency’s existence, and the employee’s, have no purpose.

The FDA: Where Nonsense Meets Politics

Now the drama turns to the FDA, which should operate as an independent agency, but doesn’t.  It’s a political entity, and when a politician writes them a letter, they have to do something.  So they take several months to decide what to do.  In the interim, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel effectively came down on the side of the company, saying:

“We urge FDA to work expeditiously with OSHA and appropriate state and local organizations to objectively determine if salon hair smoothing products emit levels of formaldehyde gas that are unsafe for consumers or salon workers under their intended conditions of use and taking into consideration salon ventilation practices [emphasis mine]“.

Meanwhile, FDA spokesman Arthur Whitmore confirmed that the FDA never conducted its own air sampling, which its Investigations Operations Manual permits.  Instead, Mr. Whitmore confirmed that the FDA “…did conduct experiments to simulate what occurs in a salon setting by heating the product at various temperatures and measuring formaldehyde production.”  But how much of the product did the FDA heat up?  The amount used in a treatment?  More?  Less?  And what about ventilation?  Did the FDA consider that salons are ventilated and whatever gross amount of formaldehyde that may have been released in a simulated situation does not in any way reflect reality?

Starting to see problems with the FDA’s approach?  I am.  This is ironic, considering the FDA’s own manual reads:

“4.1.3 – Responsibility.  Collect every sample as if you will be required to testify in court about everything you did concerning each and every event surrounding the sample collection. Mistakes or deficiencies, however trivial they may seem, can fatally damage the government’s case. Be objective, accurate, and thorough.”

Even worse, Mr. Whitmore said:

“FDA used information from a number of sources to support the warning letter including data obtained by Oregon OSHA, Federal OSHA, Health Canada, and FDA’s own laboratory studies. FDA data was obtained using HPLC and mass spectrometry, and it agreed with the data obtained from other sources. It also agreed with a recent study published in the November issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene”

This is known as “fruit of the poisonous tree”, in that it relied on data I have proven to be inaccurate and misleading in my previous articles.  In my next article, I also debunk the cited Journal study (it used more product than directed).

Nevertheless, the FDA had all of the following to examine:

• Oregon OSHA report showing the product is safe.
• Federal OSHA report showing the product is safe.
• Health Sciences Associates report showing the product is safe.
• It’s own guide to chemicals that shows methylene glycol and formaldehyde are different substances.
• A Liberal environmentalist politician’s letter asking them to ban the product.
• Heavily biased media reports.

And what does the FDA do?

They issue a warning letter.

And yet another round of media hysteria follows….in which the company is granted one sentence in each report, “denying the allegations”.

MSNBC

Huffington Post

ABC News

Fox News

Headline News

CNN

ABC local news

Company Fights Back; Media is Silent

In truth, Brazilian Blowout agreed to cooperate with the FDA to demonstrate that the product was neither adulterated nor misleading, and although they disagreed with the FDA over whether or not their product was considered “formaldehyde free”, they removed that language from their product.

Still, not a single media outlet has asked the company about their side of the story.

In fact, the company’s response letter to the FDA laid out a coherent and comprehensive rebuttal to the agency (available for review).  In short, the company presented all the evidence presented in this series along with two other major points.  First, they insist the product is not “adulterated” because it doesn’t “contain a deleterious substance that may render it injurious to users under the contradiction of use prescribed in its labeling”.   In other words, if people (and OSHA) use the product as directed, no injurious substance gets released.   Second, in relying on OSHA’s data, the FDA relied on a third party’s inferior method of sampling formaldehyde, a method that itself actually produces formaldehyde!

Now we turn to the media coverage of this forceful response.

The Perfect Storm

I’ve repeatedly stated that I conducted this investigation as a real journalist should have.  The truth is available for those who seek it — and it is available cheaply, easily, and rapidly.   That the mainstream media has repeatedly presented the government’s untenable position regarding this product, and ignored the other side of the story, goes beyond the excuse that “fear sells”.   Rather, they have pro-actively partnered in a Liberal environmentalist vendetta against a successful hair product company.

This sordid affair is demonstrative not only of the media’s own Leftist bias, but the problem of government.  Don’t tell me there isn’t bias inside a government agency, especially in this Administration and especially in Oregon.  What does it say when a politician doesn’t even have to conduct his own due diligence, and instead just points to a government agency, and use their findings as gospel even if proven to be flawed, and then leverage that to engage yet another government entity to try and kill a business?

It says that government is over-reaching and harming private businesses –in this case, hair product companies, salons, and stylists.  Why isn’t Rep. Blumenauer being held to account for attacking a company without doing his due diligence?  Where is OSHA’s accountability?  Where is that agency’s checks and balances?

I’ve at least injected enough doubt into this mess to demonstrate that the government is no longer working for us.  It’s working against us.

Next time: I’ll present a definitive study that acquits the company’s position and present yet another flawed study — this one by a private entity.  The contrast will shock you.

JAY CARNEY:  The Factor’s devoting a whole show to the revelations next week, sir.  Word is, he’ll read excerpts from your Harvard Law senior thesis, “Tart Reform: a New Paradigm for the Oldest Profession.”

OBAMA: Good lord!  I’ll be ridiculed for something I didn’t even write.  How do we stop this?

DAVID PLOUFFE:  Posing as a fired MSNBC whistleblower, I’ll e-mail O’Reilly and set up a meet in Fort Marcy Park tonight, sir.  You call in a favor from the Teamsters.  Tomorrow morning, joggers’ll find old “Fair and Balanced” clutching a note expressing remorse for forging documents meant to discredit you.

OBAMA:  Um, maybe something less extreme.  Leon?

PANETTA:  Our Black Projects team developed a marble-sized nuke that’ll fry transmissions in a localized area, sir.  I can task a Predator to deliver it over Fox Headquarters as O’Reilly goes on.

OBAMA:  Set it up.  But we need a cover story.  Janet, order the National Weather Service to warn of severe thunderstorms in the vicinity just before detonation.

NAPOLITANO:  Won’t fool anybody, sir.

OBAMA:  You’re right.  Instead, let’s give the Times, the Post, and our network anchors a heads-up on the EMP event.  Jay, inform them I want the spike story pulsed . . . I mean the pulse story spiked.

CARNEY:  You’re forgetting the blogosphere, sir:  Big Government and the Pajamas guys will out the truth in nanoseconds.

OBAMA:  Then I’ll shut down the internet for “national security reasons.”

NAPOLITANO:  You agreed to hold off flipping the internet kill switch until after you’re reelected, sir.

JOE BIDEN: I gotta idea, Boss: get in front of the wave.  Preempt O’Reilly, and come clean about your misspent youth with a heartfelt statement from the Oval Office.

OBAMA:  Might work.  Something along these lines:

“Let me be perfectly clear.  I toked my way through college, but the smoke has long since dissipated, and I am now clear-headed and determined to save the country from modern robber barons such as the Koch brothers in order to see to fruition my health care reforms, which are designed to prevent predatory insurers from denying home services to people like Hernando Sosa of Santa Fe, a quadriplegic who died alone last spring after swallowing his dentures, with no one to help him in his final years but an elderly aunt who had lost both feet to diabetes when Kaiser Permanente refused to. . . .”

BIDEN:  Uh, super, Chief.  Might wanna tighten it up a little, though.

PLOUFFE:  On another matter, Mr. President:  in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren just locked up the Senate nomination, but she’s already down a dozen to Scott Brown.

OBAMA:  Liz needs my help.  I’ll endorse Brown and campaign for him.  Should tank his support among independents–and raise doubts about him with Republicans.

VALERIE JARRETT:  But sir . . . won’t our people stand down because you’re pushing Brown?

PLOUFFE:  No worries, Val.  Massachusetts Democrats are genetically predisposed to vote against their interests.

OBAMA: Jay, set up a Scott Brown call center in the Situation Room.  We’ll release a tape of me working the phones.  Debbie, arrange for DNC operatives to wave “Barack and Scott for America” signs at Brown’s rallies.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ:  Yes, sir.  Looking ahead to Election Day:  I’ll ask the New Black Panther Party to station, ah, aggressive observers outside polling places in key Republican precincts.

ERIC HOLDER:  Assure NBPP leadership that Justice Department lawyers will be on hand to shield their toughs from harassment by local authorities.

OBAMA:  Which reminds me . . . I’ve overplayed the race card.  From now on, I’ll employ the victim card.  Any suggestions?

BILL DALEY:  My voice doesn’t carry as far since my demotion, sir, so please listen carefully.  Instruct Media Matters to claim Breitbart’s spreading rumors that you have another wife and family in Cleveland; attended Madrassa with Mullah Omar; and were born a hermaphrodite.  We need people outraged and rallying around you the way they did for Cain.

OBAMA:  Clever.  Once we propagate those despicable lies, I’ll attend African Methodist Episcopal some rainy Sunday when I can’t golf and preach the virtues of forgiveness.

HOLDER:  Speaking of victims, sir—lawsuits have just been filed over the alleged shootings at Fort Hood in 2009.   One claimant is Federal Police Officer Kimberly Munley, who was allegedly wounded when she attacked Major Nidal Hasan, the alleged gunman.

OBAMA:  Damn!  Anti-Muslim sentiment will rekindle with Fort Hood back on the front pages.  I wonder . . . could we defuse tensions by inviting Hasan and Munley to the Rose Garden for a beer?

HOLDER:  Hasan would probably decline, sir.  They say he doesn’t respect women, especially women who shoot him.

Nidal Hasan

OBAMA:  What’s the status of the investigation?

HOLDER:  DOJ’s going through Officer Hunley’s background with a fine-tooth comb, sir.  I’m confident we’ll determine why she resorted to violence that day. Meanwhile, we’ve identified thirty-five eyewitnesses who are conspiring to claim Major Hasan shouted a Muslim warcry during the incident.

OBAMA:  Wherever the truth leads, Eric. . . .

[enter First Lady]

MICHELLE:  Bill Ayers is waiting outside, and he’s mad.  Says you’re behind on royalty payments you owe him for writing your autobiography.   Pay the man!  You hear me, Barack?

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York — operating as New York Communities for Change — have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources.

NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources said.

“They’re doing serious damage control right now,” said an NYCC source.

NYCC Executive Director Jon Kest has been calling a series of emergency meetings to discuss last week’s report—and taking extreme measures to identify the sources in their office and to prevent further damage, a source within NYCC told FoxNews.com.

Two staffers were fired after NYCC officials suspected them as the source of the leaks, a source told FoxNews.com. “One was fired the day the story came out, the other was fired on Friday. (NYCC senior staff) told everyone that they were fired because they talked to you,” a source said.

NYCC spokesman Scott Levenson denied that anyone was fired for talking to the press.

FoxNews.com’s report identified NYCC as a key organizing force behind the Occupy Wall Street protests. Sources within the group also told FoxNews.com NYCC was hiring people to carry signs and join the protests. NYCC — a nonprofit organization run almost entirely by former ACORN officials and employees –did not reply for comment prior to the publication of the initial article, but later posted a statement on its website dismissing the article and denying that it pays protesters.

A source said that immediately following publication of the FoxNews.com report staff were called into the Brooklyn office for meetings headed by NYCC’s organizing director, Jonathan Westin. Westin handed out copies of the article and went through it line-by-line, the source said.

Staffers were also given copies of photos of Senior Fox News Correspondent Eric Shawn and three other Fox News staff members, including this reporter.

“They reminded us that we can get fired, sued, arrested for talking to the press,” the source said. “Then they went through the article point-by-point and said that the allegation that we pay people to protest isn’t true.”

“‘That’s the story that we’re sticking to,’” Westin said, according to the source.

Read more here.

In such a setting, and on such a topic, Gov. Perry exudes the kind of confidence that took him to the top of the polls in August.

Far less complicated than McRomney’s “59 point” plan, Perry’s plan can be easily summed up thus:

Introduce a 20 percent flat rate on individual and corporate income, down from the current top rate of 35 percent.

Provide an exemption of $12,500 per person, so that a family of four would face no tax on its first $50,000 in income.

Preserve deductions for mortgage interest, charitable donations, and state and local taxes on incomes below $500,000.

Allow anyone to file under the current system if they choose.

Shift to a territorial system of corporate taxation, allowing corporations to repatriate profits still parked overseas at a 5.25 percent rate.

This plan is a winner for Gov. Perry because it’s self-explanatory, brief enough for everyone to get their minds around, and, most importantly, rooted in the pursuit of decreasing the size of government while simultaneously increasing liberty.

The brevity of Perry’s plan also highlights the absolute ridiculousness of McRomney’s 59-point plan: a plan which is so complicated that when printed out, it forms a “160-page book” (How big of a government does Romney want if his economic plan takes up 160 pages?).

Again, the brevity of Perry’s plan proves the truth of his oft-spoken desire to make the federal government as inconsequential in the lives of Americans as possible.

If I were advising Perry’s team, I’d tell them to get ready to make McRomney explain his plan point by point in the next debate. And when he says he doesn’t have time or if he says “I’ll explain mine if you explain yours,” Perry can sum his up his five points quickly and let everyone see McRomney for what he is – another big government politician who’s trying to trick us into thinking he’s a conservative.

Although no one knows what’s going to happen as the primary season continues, one thing is for sure; it’s good to see Gov. Perry climb back in the saddle again.

Fox News reported earlier today that remnants of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the radical community organizing group that collapsed after its corruption was exposed by Big Government, are playing a “behind the scenes” role in organizing the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

The Fox News investigation followed Matthew Vadum’s report two weeks ago at Big Government that ACORN was paying people to attend the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York through the Working Families Party, an ACORN front group.

Now, Big Government has learned that in an email (below) sent by Fithian to Occupy organizers and supporters on October 22, 2011, she reported that the “New Bottom Line”–an effort to move as much money out of major banks as possible on November 5th–is being led by several ACORN-linked organizations: “National People’s Action, National Pico Network, and Alliance for Just and Sustainable Economy and other key state groups like ACCE in CA, NYCC in NY, or MORE in St. Louis.”

Fithian New Bottom Line

ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), NYCC (New York Communities for Change), and MORE (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment), are apparently nothing more than reconstituted ACORN branches.

National People’s Action, PICO National Network, and Alliance for a Just Society are all closely linked to ACORN. At the time of ACORN’s collapse, National People’s Action in particular vowed publicly to pick up where ACORN left off: “Organizations can come and go, but what’s important is that people who want to come together should have the opportunity to…identify their interests and work on them together.” These groups have also collaborated on similar ACORN-style campaigns against banks in the recent past.

Former ACORN chief executive and organizer Bertha Lewis is also involved in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Her new organization, The Black Institute, is calling its protests “Occupy Black America” and “Occupy The Hood.”

Meanwhile, Fithian is at the core of Occupy itself, urging activists to join the New Bottom Line, whose webpage reveals a variety of ACORN-style demonstrations and “direct actions” across the country.

The chosen date for the financial protest, Nov. 5, is known in the British Commonwealth as Guy Fawkes Day, named to commemorate the failure of the man who had attempted to blow up Parliament and thereby assassinate King James I four hundred years ago.

Guy Fawkes has become a symbol of the Occupy demonstrations and the Anonymous hacker collective–hence the near-ubiquitous Guy Fawkes (“V for Vendetta“) masks at protests.

The involvement of ACORN’s successors in the Occupy movement is yet another sign of the true, radical nature of the demonstrations.

Given President Barack Obama’s past links to ACORN, the fact that ACORN is playing so large a role in continuing Occupy protests raises questions about whether Occupy enjoys a level of political protection far higher than the local politicians who recently pressured the owners of Zuccotti Park not to clear out the demonstrators.

At Occupy Cleveland over the weekend, a 19 year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by fellow a protestor. And in Seattle, a protestor was arrested for exposing himself to at least five children (at last count). Don’t you think the parents of these hippies have to be proud of the great work they are doing?

I know President Obama is, because he said so:

The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side, and that we want to set up a system in which hard work, responsibility, doing what you’re supposed to do, is rewarded.

And although these hippies are breaching property laws (and allegedly raping, kidnapping, and exposing themselves from time to time), Obama contends they’re not much different from the Tea Party:

In some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them.

Folks, I’ve been to a Tea Party rally (as I’m sure many of you have), and I’ll guarantee you that the kind of scum bag, bottom feeders we see sleeping in public parks to protest Wall Street’s success (and get some more free stuff) have no part in the Tea Party and are in no way comparable to those who do.

Nonetheless, Obama has joined himself with these hippies, and Democrats everywhere now realize the whole country knows that these people are Obama voters. These are the people he’s trying to stir up with all his class warfare jargon, hoping that their very unending presence in our midst will shame wealthier people into parting with more of their own money to get Obama’s agenda moving again. Sorry ‘bout your luck Mr. Obama: it ain’t gonna happen.

Proof that it won’t work can be seen in Virginia, where Democrat office holders are literally fleeing their own towns in order to avoid being there when Obama’s bus rolls up (they know that if they’re seen shaking hands with him their political careers are over). Someone needs to tell Obama he’s in a mess of his own making. He owns #OccupyWallSt the way Holder owns Fast and Furious. He has wedded himself to a bunch of hippies whose entire goal in life is to “eat the rich” (and get some more free stuff).

It’s time to move the hippies out of our parks and hand Obama a landslide loss that moves him out of the White House.

I’m here to introduce someone special, a person who can calm the raging Maxine Waters with a look, sell solar panels below cost and still make a profit, and cause the stock market to plummet with a single word.

C’mon, kids, give it up for the President of the United States, Baraaccck Obama!

FADE TO:

A Command and Control bunker deep beneath the White House.  Wearing a headset, the President is sitting at a console facing three large-screen HD monitors showing complementary views of a tactical assault in progress.   He is issuing orders.

At a break in the action, the CIC swivels to face the camera, covers his mike, and whispers:

Hey kids.  Good to see you again.   Hold on a sec; I’m just finishing up a mission here.

He turns back to direct the closing moments of the operation:

Zulu 1: secure perimeter.  Henderson: white SUV fleeing site.  Task Predator to take it out.  Bravo 1: Standoff See-Through Infrared shows targets at top of stairwell. Body signatures confirmed.  Authorization granted. [pause] Roger that.  Well done.  Bring me back some ears.

The President removes his headset, turns to the camera, smiles, and speaks:

PRESIDENT OBAMA:

You’re probably wondering about what you just heard.  Unfortunately, your President has sworn enemies who are always probing for ways to attack him and, by extension, you.

Under my direction, crack units of our National Civilian Security Force have raided RNC headquarters here in Washington looking for some very bad people.  They found them.  I assure you, I will not rest until all those who threaten the way of life I’m imposing on America are brought to justice.

Before I say more, please stand, place your right hand over your heart, and recite along with me:

I pledge allegiance to the President of the United States of America, and to its decline, for which he’s planned, one nation, under him highly risible, with penury and animus for all.

Last year I spoke to you about the importance of education. This year I’ll explain how you can help me win a second term that will finally allow me to abandon the pose of uniter and become the Divider-in-Chief.

There are those who say I don’t like being criticized.  That’s simply not true.  I don’t mind criticism, as long as it’s unspoken.  Make no mistake, the First Amendment to the Constitution doesn’t allow people to get on my case.  The United States Supreme Court ruled you may not yell “fire” in a crowded theater or shout “You lie!” during a presidential address to a joint session of Congress.

Thanks to a friend named Mr. Holder, who’s been monitoring Americans since I became President, I have a list of the grown-ups who are publicly and privately abusing their free speech rights to pile on me; what I don’t know is, which kids hear bad things about me at the dinner table and repeat them at school.

So, I’ll ask a favor.  In lunchrooms and bathrooms, during gym class and math class, if you witness a classmate dissing me, report it.  Same advice I gave a year ago regarding parental presidential hate speech: tell a counselor, tell a principal, tell a prompter.  And if you’re too shy to speak up, e-mail the information to me at http://www.AttackWatchJr.com.

I’ll bet you feel sometimes you have no say in what goes at home.  Maybe TV time is limited, or you aren’t permitted a computer in your bedroom.

Well, I believe in empowering young people.  At my request, satellite and cable companies now include a children’s blocking option on their menus.  Teachers will pass out codes for providers where you live.  This means, when your folks tune in to Fox News, say, or a rerun of Supernanny, they’ll be redirected to MSNBC.

Boys and girls, everything I’ve done to America to make poorer countries less envious of us will be undone if I’m not reelected next November.  No, you can’t vote—yet; but you can use your imagination to support me in other ways.

I’m thinking about Mishaha Glynn, a fourth grader from East Abunni, Utah, who’s petitioning Family Court to force her parents to tithe half her weekly allowance to my campaign.

And another youngster, Ritva Allembe, a sixth grader from Cheeseburg, Wisconsin, who’s been stealing her classmates’ bag lunches and delivering them to a homeless shelter after school. Why?  More hungry kids, more federal aid, and more people voting for me to keep the aid coming.  Ritva calls her initiative, “LunchWalker.”

Well, time to leave.  I still have trillions of dollars to squander in a futile attempt to fix the economy I’ve broken, and there aren’t enough hours in the day.

Now, please watch this taped message from two friends, Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Trumka, who will explain how you kids can organize into, uh, dues-paying clubs to give you a say in running your school and help finance my reelection campaign to boot.

Thank you, and may God forgive me.  [to someone off camera] What?  Oh.  I mean, may God bless America.