All about delegates

The Sunday NYT has a nice background piece on the history of delegates in the Republican and Democratic parties. Read More......

Bush-FDA to make it easier for Big Pharma

Obviously the FDA isn't paying attention to the abuses by the pharmaceutical industry. They run tests to solve one problem and then out of the blue, they start selling it for yet another problem. Maybe it works out OK but maybe it doesn't. Keep in mind that the US spends more per person on pharmaceuticals than any other country on the planet. This move is all about keeping the money train moving and has very little to do about saving lives.

A 2006 study estimated that more than 20 percent of all prescriptions written by doctors were for unapproved uses.

But drug makers have in the past abused doctors’ discretion by telling them that some medicines were appropriate for patients in whom the drugs may have caused more harm than good. In 2004, Pfizer paid a $430 million fine to resolve criminal and civil charges that it marketed its epilepsy drug Neurontin for conditions in which the company’s own studies suggested that the drug was ineffective.

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Unofficial Tallies in NYC Understated Obama Vote

NYT:

Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district.

City election officials this week said that their formal review of the results, which will not be completed for weeks, had confirmed some major discrepancies between the vote totals reported publicly — and unofficially — on primary night and the actual tally on hundreds of voting machines across the city.

In the Harlem district, for instance, where the primary night returns suggested a 141 to 0 sweep by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the vote now stands at 261 to 136. In an even more heavily black district in Brooklyn — where the vote on primary night was recorded as 118 to 0 for Mrs. Clinton — she now barely leads, 118 to 116.

Favorite part of the article:

A number of political leaders also scoffed at the possibility that local politicians, even if they considered it vital that Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton prevail in the primary, were capable of even trying to hijack such a contest.

Still, for those inclined to consider conspiracy theories, the figures provided plenty of grist.

Ah yes, a little personal opinion from the objective reporter being injected into a news story. Because, you see, only a conspiracy nut would think that anyone would cheat at an election in America. Read More......

Saudis reportedly threatened to let terrorists attack London

Why do we continue to put up with these people?.

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

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Online book discussion with Richard Clarke

This came together a little bit last minute, so I apologize for the late notice, but I'm extremely pleased to announce that Richard Clarke, former counter-terrorism coordinator for two presidential administrations and vocal critic of the Bush approach to security, will be hosting the discussion of my new book, Still Broken, this afternoon over at FireDogLake.com at 5 p.m.

The book recounts my time as an intelligence officer working for the Defense Intelligence Agency, essentially the spy arm of the Department of Defense, and explains how not only are the problems with intelligence analysis that led to things like 9/11 and the WMD debacle continuing, they're becoming institutionalized. Rewarding good news rather than accurate news is an issue that's becoming a permanent part of a broken intelligence process, and while I experienced that at the bottom of the process, Clarke saw how and why that kind of culture was created from the very top. He has been an insightful and courageous voice on terrorism, FISA and wiretapping issues, and Iraq, and I hope you'll head over to FireDogLake.com at 5 p.m. today to participate in the conversation about Still Broken. Read More......

Another ad about debates from Clinton. This is the best issue she has, apparently.

Hillary Clinton has decided to go negative in a new ad -- another ad about debates. Good grief. She keeps talking about those 35 years of experience -- and this is the best she can do? Wow. It's actually sad.

But, if Clinton wants a debate about issues like Social Security, which is what her ads claims, maybe she could debate herself:


(The video was produced by the Edwards campaign.) Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

UPDATE: Oops, the Poem of the Week link is now good.

Good morning.

Not many political pros could have predicted that we'd still be in the thick of the primary process during President's Day Weekend. But here we are.

The poem of the week is "Valentine for Ernest Mann" by Naomi Shihab Nye. It's not about valentines, it's about poems. Very fun. (Hint: Poems are not like tacos, but skunks can be poems.)

Start threading the news. Read More......

US retailers get around to safety standards

Woo hoo. Aren't they speedy in their reaction to a serious health problem? It's not as though dangerous toys are relevant for Toys R Us or anything. Yes, once again industry shows just how well it can self-regulate. Maybe a few consumers will get lost in the shuffle but is the well-being of children really that important when we're talking about making millions and billions of dollars? Isn't corporate profit more important? They have shareholders you know and those shareholders want profit, or else. Read More......

16th century painting too sexual for London advert

Some people have serious issues if they find a painting like this offensive. John Ashcroft would be proud.

London's transport authority has refused to display a poster featuring the 16th-century "Venus" by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, saying it is overtly sexual.

The painting, which depicts a golden-haired, milky-skinned woman cocking her hips behind a transparent veil, is one of 70 works due to go on display at London's Royal Academy of Arts on March 8.

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DOD Study: 100s of Marines dead and wounded because Bush admin dropped the ball on armor

Gee, our president is once again calling Democrats soft on national security and at the same time an internal Defense Department study says that the Bush administration's malfeasance killed and injured 100s of Marines unnecessarily. Will the Democrats finally turn this issue around on Bush?

Hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.

The study, written by a civilian Marine Corps official and obtained by The Associated Press, accuses the service of "gross mismanagement" that delayed deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks for more than two years.

Cost was a driving factor in the decision to turn down the request for the so-called MRAPs, according to the study. Stateside authorities saw the hulking vehicles, which can cost as much as a $1 million each, as a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years from being fielded.

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