Jump to the last post to read about the NHS proposal. This thread has been re-titled.

To kill or to ill. Even if the pillmaker *faked* the clinical studies, they can't be held liable if they pass the approval process. And we know what the oversight is on product safety today; it's a cheaper bribe than ever to beat it- Big Pharm appointees crowd the FDA . Vote fraud, mine safety, torture: this administration's modus operandi is to make it the obligation of the courts to enforce the law. They think that you won't fight back every time, so they're guaranteed a certain number of victories or short-term regulatory relief.

news target dot com wrote wrote:June 30, 2006 is a day that will be long remembered as a dark milestone in the history of FDA and its campaign against health consumers. On June 30, an FDA "Final Rule" goes into effect, establishing a regulatory power grab of such scale and scope that it attempts to bypass all laws, the will of Congress and fundamental protections for consumers. This "Final Rule," which may as well be called a "Final Solution" for drug consumers, claims that consumers can no longer sue drug companies for the harm caused by any FDA-approved drug, even if the drug's manufacturer intentionally misled the FDA by hiding or fabricating clinical trial data.

In one blatantly illegal act, the FDA is attempting to pull off the greatest Big Pharma coup of all: The outright elimination of any responsibility whatsoever for the suffering and death caused by deadly pharmaceuticals.

In the preamble of the FDA's new "Final Rule" to take effect on June 30, the agency asserts that FDA approval of prescription drugs -- and their implied safety -- may no longer be second-guessed by consumers or organizations of any kind. The FDA's stamp of approval, the agency claims, is an absolute declaration of safety of all such drugs, for any use whatsoever, including off-label use (the use of drugs on health conditions that were never tested in clinical trials).

But such a position has no basis in law. During a June 6, 2006 hearing, a New Jersey state court judge Carol E. Higbee characterized the FDA's preamble as, "a political statement by the FDA" and explained that the ploy has, "...nothing to do with science. ...It is contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions. It is contrary to all the law on preemption. ... In addition to being contrary to the law of the land, it is also contrary to the Constitution of the United States."

complete article here

rgh

Completely different issue. It only belongs in this thread as one more reminder of how a majority of voters in the red states who would applaud the disappearance of every public library in the country conspired to ruin your lives, by electing an administration that hates science so much, they'll lock the doors on research and watch people die.

Every person who cast one vote or two for George W. Bush, especially if you did it because he sold you on that 'war on terror via Iraq' bullshit, please blow several fingers off with an M-80 on the 4th of July for me. The remaining smart population of America hates you- please remember that, morons.

yuba dot net wrote:In an extraordinary letter of protest, representatives for 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists are asking Congress to stop the Bush administration from closing the agency's network of technical research libraries. The EPA scientists, representing more than half of the total agency workforce, contend thousands of scientific studies are being put out of reach, hindering emergency preparedness, anti-pollution enforcement and long-term research, according to the letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

In his proposed budget for FY 2007, President Bush deleted $2 million of support for EPA's libraries, amounting to 80% of the agency's total budget for libraries. Without waiting for Congress to act, EPA has begun shuttering libraries, closing access to collections and reassigning staff. The letter notes that "EPA library services are [now] greatly reduced or no longer available to the general public" in agency regional offices serving 19 states.

The dogged insistence by the Bush administration on a $2 million cut in an overall EPA budget of nearly $8 billion is particularly curious. EPA internal studies show that providing full library access saves an estimated 214,000 hours in professional staff time worth some $7.5 million annually, an amount far larger than the total agency library budget of $2.5 million.

full article here

check out: the truth about the drug companies by marcia angell
and powerful medicine by jerry avorn. the former is an easier read, with efficient writing and less digressions.

And the parade of gloom marches on. There's not much we can do about this, this is not an appointment that requires congressional approval.

think progress.org wrote:
Bush Nominates Anti-Regulatory Zealot To Head ‘Super-Powerful’ Public Safety Office

President Bush is expected to nominate Susan Dudley as the next head of an obscure but “super-powerful office that oversees many business regulations.” The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs holds sway over federal regulatory agencies like the EPA and helps set regulatory policy for a wide range of issues, from workplace safety to water quality.

The most recent head, John Graham, has “demonstrated consistent hostility to protections for public health, safety and the environment over his career.” And according to Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch, Dudley “makes John Graham look like Ralph Nader.”

As the director of regulatory studies at the industry-backed Mercatus Center she has worked to oppose vital public health regulation as a “hidden tax” that hinders profits. Some of her targets:

– Opposed EPA plans to set tougher public health standards for smog.

– Opposed lower-polluting cars and SUVs and cleaner gasoline.

– Opposed air bags in cars, preferring to leave public safety decisions “to the market place.”

– Opposed stronger regulations for arsenic in drinking water, claming that there “is a wide range of uncertainty in the science surrounding the health effects of arsenic in U.S. drinking water supplies.”

– Opposed measures to curb global warming, stating that the “evidence regarding global warming and human contribution to it is mixed, and…if a slight warming does occur, historical evidence suggests it is likely to be beneficial, occurring at night, in the winter, and at the poles. Taking ‘precautionary action’ to protect human health based on a series of tenuous linkages would likely create a new set of risks.”

Not surprisingly, Exxon Mobil has donated $80,000 to Dudley’s think tank.

This is not from the Onion. Nor is it April 1st.

jesus wept.

I'm on the edge of changing my mind.

there apparently are demons running amok on the earth after all.

if Galanter's reading this I wonder how it fits in to his view of your administration as benevelont fighters for truth, justice, freedom and - ahem - democracy?

Earwicker wrote:if Galanter's reading this I wonder how it fits in to his view of your administration as benevelont fighters for truth, justice, freedom and - ahem - democracy?

I do not think you could assemble a big enough mountain of evidence against Bush that would tip Galanter's scales regarding the war. No brakes when it comes to this war. Once people commit to a holy war against a state of mind, all other misuses of power perpetrated by their war commander are simply filed away under 'acceptable collateral damage'.

It's the fear, Earwicker. Their bones are so cold with fear. They imagine hijacked planes and collapsing skyscrapers everywhere, terror cells under every subway platform. I can believe that Galanter has read 1984 backwards and forwards, and, at one time, understood it as well as I do. The fear got him. He forgot how tough and resilient we still can be, how al Qaeda or whoever al Qaeda works for couldn't tear us apart in a million years unless we lay down for the homegrown fascists who bring us the fear.

If I may add a bright note to this thread. This news has made me happy lately and I'm not even female.

cervical cancer vaccine soon

Take that, fundie whores...

Earwicker wrote:if Galanter's reading this I wonder how it fits in to his view of your administration as benevelont fighters for truth, justice, freedom and - ahem - democracy?

That's not my view and I never said it was.

And I can assure you that what I feel is not fear. It is determination.