In a 2005 article in the Village Voice titled "Capitalizing on the Flu," James Ridgeway predicted that a "flu pandemic would spark enough fear to make it a greed pandemic." As Ridgeway observed, "With a worldwide market estimated at more than $1 billion, there's big money in a flu plague." In fact, the pharmaceutical industry has gone to great lengths through its lobbying and government contracts to ensure that it will get a good piece of the plague pie. Now with the swine flu set to become a global pandemic, Big Pharma is raking it in.

Responding to the somewhat hysteria-induced demand for drugs to protect against the swine flu, pharmaceutical companies have ramped up production of Tamiflu and Relenza, two anti-viral drugs being touted for their ability to fight the flu. Eleven million doses of the flu-fighting drugs, about one-quarter of what has been stockpiled by the U.S. government, have already been sent to the states.

News-media sycophants, in typical fashion, have taken up the hew and cry over Tamiflu's life-saving properties. Yet little is being said about the very real dangers that these drugs, particularly Tamiflu, pose to your health and mental welfare.

Two years ago, I alerted people to the fact that the groundwork was being laid for a new kind of government in which virtually everyone is a suspect and it will no longer matter if you're innocent or guilty, whether you're a threat to the nation or even if you're a citizen. What will matter is what the president -- or whoever happens to be occupying the Oval Office at the time -- thinks.

At the time, I was voicing concerns about the liberties the Bush administration was taking in its application of the term "enemy combatant." Today, under the Obama administration, the perceived threat is coming from an altogether different direction: "right-wing extremists."

Below are links to Project Vote Smart's records of how members of Congress voted on key federal legislation.

HR 3162 (2001): USA PATRIOT Act

Senate: http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?cs_id=7877

House: http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?cs_id=8289

HR 1424 (2008): Second Economic Package (a.k.a. the bailout bill)

Senate: http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_member.php?cs_id=20737&sort=vote

House: http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_member.php?cs_id=22467

HR 1 (2009): Economic Package

Senate initial passage: http://votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?cs_id=23525

House initial passage: http://votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?cs_id=23323

Senate conference report vote: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00064

House conference report vote: http://votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?cs_id=23644

Illinois state Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) said last week that the Senate Democrats will seek "feedback" from the Senate Republicans before making final decisions on new rules for the chamber. Steans was put in charge of devising new rules by Senate President John Cullerton several months ago.

That statement, probably more than anything else that was said or done recently, illustrates how much things are about to change in the Illinois Senate.

Governor Rod Blagojevich was pure defiance last week after the House voted 114 to 1 to impeach him.

Blagojevich said he expected the impeachment because the House has been fighting him tooth and nail ever since he was re-elected in 2006. A statement his office released a day earlier predicted smoother sailing in the Senate.

"It was a foregone conclusion," the governor said about the impeachment.

"When the case moves to the Senate, an actual judge will preside over the hearings, and the governor believes the outcome will be much different," his office's official statement read.