Bush Uses FDA To Shield Big Pharma From Lawsuits - Media Monitors Network (MMN):
The ploy was also readily recognized by state lawmakers and trial lawyers as another ploy to reduce the public’s ability to hold Big Pharma accountable. “Eliminating the rights of individuals to hold negligent drug companies accountable puts patients in even more danger than they already are in from drug company executives that put profits before safety,” said Ken Suggs, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
“The fact that the drug industry can get the FDA to rewrite the rules so that CEOs can escape accountability for putting dangerous and deadly drugs on the market is the scariest example yet of how much control these big corporations have over our political process,” Mr Suggs told the Washington Post.
…
According to Ms Menziess, “The FDA’s preemption argument, if successful, would take away the sole means by which American consumers may obtain compensation for drug-induced injuries caused by a drug company’s failure to warn.”
An excellent write-up of all the crazy back-room legislative shenanigans being orchestrated by the Congressional Republicans (most notably, our good friend Dr. Bill Frist) in an attempt to grant big drug companies even more legal legroom when it comes to product liability. Guess who helped write the language he keeps trying to stick into every other bill? Yep, more good ‘ol lobbyists! Who are these people?
Well, here’s a little glimpse into what twisted logic they seem to be trying to pass off as “rationale”:
“The FDA’s purported position on preemption assumes that the FDA is infallible and that negligent misconduct by pharmaceutical companies should be the sole purview of FDA. Recent regulatory failures demonstrate that FDA is neither infallible nor does it have the capability of policing drug manufacturers negligent misconduct.”
Wait, don’t republicans like small government? Or are courts getting too bloated alluvasudden? But the fact that all these bills are being written in shifty late-night makeout parties with industry insiders sends all their excuses to hell…
(Via Media Monitors Network.)
And more…
The Republican Agenda for 2006: Tax Cuts for a Favored Few - New York Times:
The bill, which was passed yesterday by the House and is expected to clear the Senate as early as today, has two main provisions. The first, and dearest to the hearts of President Bush and his allies in Congress, is an extension of the temporary low tax rates on investment income. The top 10 percent of income earners will get almost all of the benefits, and everyone else will get crumbs. To justify the giveaway, President Bush and Congressional Republicans insist that tax cuts for investors benefit everyone %u2014 and pay for themselves %u2014 by stimulating economic growth. That assertion is seriously delusional. Economic theory suggests that a fraction of the tax cuts’ cost could, perhaps, be offset by higher growth, all other things being equal. But when a nation must borrow to pay for tax breaks, as is the case in the United States today, any ability of tax cuts for investors to spur growth is severely diminished.
(Via .)
Hoooorayyy
The Republican Agenda for 2006: Tax Increases for Everyone Else - New York Times:
One way or the other, tax increases are coming. The nation’s budget deficits are too big to outgrow, and the latest tax cuts %u2014 which Congress is likely to sign off on today %u2014 will dig the hole deeper. Neither Congress nor the public has the stomach to slash government programs anywhere near enough to bring spending in line with revenues. The only real question, then is this: Whose taxes will be raised in the future to pay for today’s tax giveaways?
Here’s a hint: If Congressional Republicans get their way, the people who benefit the most from today’s tax cuts %u2014 mainly wealthy Americans with lots of investment income %u2014 will get special protection from future tax increases.
(Via .)
OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail:
It’s now almost a given that no matter how large today’s boycott is, it will damage any prospects of a sensible immigration bill this year. Rep. Richard Pombo, a California Republican who represents many Central Valley farmers who are desperate for guest workers, warns that the boycott is threatening to polarize the debate. He told San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders that the presence of many Mexican and Central American flags at the March rallies by immigrants “really politicized the whole issue. It took away any hope we have of having a workable policy.”
(Via OpinionJournal.)
As always, an interesting perspective on things from The Journal. Particularly relevant given what we’ve been talking about lately in my Geography of the Global Economy class… coooool.
OpinionJournal - Climate of Fear
Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence.
BY RICHARD LINDZEN
Wednesday, April 12, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDTAlarm rather than genuine scientific curiosity, it appears, is essential to maintaining funding. And only the most senior scientists today can stand up against this alarmist gale, and defy the iron triangle of climate scientists, advocates and policymakers.
M. Lindzen is Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT.
Technorati Tags:
controversy, science, policy
Pro-Life Nation - New York Times
Pro-Life Nation
By JACK HITT
Published: April 9, 2006
It was a sunny midafternoon in a shiny new global-economy mall in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador, and a young woman I was hoping to meet appeared to be getting cold feet. She had agreed to rendezvous with a go-between not far from the Payless shoe store and then come to a nearby hotel to talk to me. She was an hour late. Alone in the hotel lobby, I was feeling nervous; I was stood up the day before by another woman in a similar situation. I had been warned that interviewing anyone who had had an abortion in El Salvador would be difficult. The problem was not simply that in this very Catholic country a shy 24-year-old unmarried woman might feel shame telling her story to an older man. There was also the criminal stigma. And this was why I had come to El Salvador: Abortion is a serious felony here for everyone involved, including the woman who has the abortion. Some young women are now serving prison sentences, a few as long as 30 years.
Technorati Tags:
abortion, policy, news
The future of our Surveillance Culture
A great post on wiretapping via Wirearchy
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