Study: Prescription drug prices increasing

Why Bush made an extra effort *not* to negotiate pharmaceutical prices remains a mystery, or at least an annoyance. As a buyer when you have volume, you use it to force lower prices. That is basic economics and the norm for any business negotiation. The fact remains that today the US consumers consistently pay more for pharmaceuticals than anywhere else. Pharmaceutical producers from both Europe and the US know that they can easily get away with highway robbery in the US.

Drug prices are more expensive in America than in Europe because they can get away with it. It's part of the business plan of Big Pharma and they love that Congress has let them get away with highway robbery. Same drug, different country and yet they charge more. For the millionth time, how did the US lose its way with competition and why is it tolerated? It's time the big business feeding frenzy ends. Forget the story about lawsuits driving up costs, here's a classic example of how and why those costs are going up.

Big Pharma always tries their best to use the excuse about how expensive it is to release a new product. Sure, this is true but again, get out of the business if you don't like it and quit the crying. I'm also reminded of my own father's attempt to get access to trial medicine when he was dying. He had been been given chemotherapy which then triggered emphysema, which ultimately killed him. Despite the "expensive" drug testing that Big Pharma talks about, the scumbags demanded almost $30,000 CASH to have the honor of being a guinea pig for their drugs. He even debated spending his hard earned retirement money before the doctor and pharmaceutical company decided he was too sick and would ruin their study percentages. Remember a story like this the next time you hear these people talk about their costly drug trials because they are liars and exaggerators.

More on the AARP study:

"Just about everybody in today's economy is feeling some economic pressures and it does not help that the drugs you take to keep healthy are much more expensive than last year," said AARP's public policy director, John Rother. "I think this makes the case for health reform."

The drug lobby group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America dismissed AARP's report as "one-sided," criticizing its focus on selected brand-name medicines.

"Unfortunately, AARP distorts the true, overall picture in hopes of dramatizing its report and deflecting attention from the millions of dollars it earns each year from its insurance businesses," PhRMA's senior vice president, Ken Johnson, said in a statement.

Of course AARP is distorting the truth. How could we not believe the Big Pharma lobbyist because we know how truthful lobbyists for big business can be. I'll bet he can recommend some great Credit Default Swaps to buy as well. Read the rest of this post...

Obama has some explaining to do

A Grateful Dead reunion tour? I'd rather have Larry Summers at the economic helm for 1,000 years than listen to this. Could there be any worse attempt at music than this? Boooo-ring, with or without Jerry Garcia. Stoner music never registered with me and it remains a mystery why anyone liked it. My theory is that nobody really likes it but are afraid to admit that they don't like it.

He's still got a little work to do on the economy, but already President Barack Obama has accomplished at least one task that had appeared all but impossible just a year ago: He's put The Dead back on the road.

As the core surviving members of the Grateful Dead, once the world's biggest concert draw, barrel across the country for the first time in five years, bass player Phil Lesh says they have Obama, and also Lesh's youngest son, Brian, to thank.

Even if I got high, there's no way I could stay awake for this complete rot. Thank god punk shoved this rubbish out the door and re-introduced music with a purpose. Read the rest of this post...

First it was for prescription drugs, now it's for education

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Maybe Canada isn't the horrible place the right wingers make it out to be after all. The cost of a university education in the US has become insane and for what? How does $200,000 make sense for a $50,000 job or even a $100,000 job? The hesitation of most US universities to touch the endowment billions is a joke and then there was the problem of easy credit and kickback schemes that didn't help. For those seeking an elite school for their kids, there are too many options out there beyond the US border that can deliver better bang for the buck. Read the rest of this post...

Investors still on sidelines - Wall Street run may be ending

What normal person really wants to dive into Wall Street today? Unless you have lots of money to burn and are an expert - and it's pretty clear there are few experts even in the industry - this is a market to be avoided like the plague. Today the NYSE CEO spoke about the market being all about traders as opposed to normal investors. For Wall Street and the broader economy's sake, Obama needs to get people investing again but that might have to wait until people feel comfortable about everything else. CNBC:

Wall Street's stunning six-week rally has been fed more by traders looking to take advantage of quick swings in the market than investors with a long-term view, NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer told CNBC.

Because of that, the rally likely is to run out of steam as low volume eventually comes back to the bite the market, he said.

"It feels to me we're in a trader's market and not an investor's market," Niederauer said in a live interview from the exchange floor.

Read the rest of this post...

Dear Spain

The people who watch O'Reilly are not only a minority of our country, but they generally don't have money, passports, or any interest in visiting any country that can't be covered by a trip to the Epcot Center.

Love, JOHN Read the rest of this post...

Great American patriot or dangerous commie?

It's never easy following the twisted thinking of the right wing extremists but they seem rather hot under the collar about Obama daring to shake hands with the crazy Hugo Chavez. Clearly this means Obama is planning on moving to assume power for life and install a socialist dictatorship. He's the Manchurian Candidate, of course, and we will all be sent to reeducation camps to learn the socialist message. In other words, the extremists are nuts. They're barking mad. Tea, anyone?










Guess which one is dangerous in the minds of the wingnuts? AP Read the rest of this post...

Tony Perkins' special rights

Hey, I appreciate an effeminate homophobe as much as the next guy, but Tony Perkins, the head of the anti-civil-rights group Family Research Council, crosses a line when he outright lies. Which is far more often than he should for someone who claims to be a Christian.

The issue is hate crimes legislation. And more specifically, why Tony Perkins already has hate crimes legislation protecting him. And why he hasn't renounced it.

You see, US has has had hate crimes law for decades. They cover race, religion and national origin. The hate crimes bill you keep hearing about, the past couple of years, isn't new legislation. It's a new amendment to OLD legislation that would simply add gender, disability and sexual orientation to the already-existing hate crimes law.

Regardless of your view on hate crimes laws, since the US already has such a law, shouldn't it cover everybody? Why does Tony Perkins get special rights that you and I don't have? When I see Tony Perkins send out an action alert about the hate crimes amendments, and spread outright lies, it still surprises me, even though I know that the religious right bigots have no honor. Here is what Perkins wrote today:

Adding "sexual orientation" to thought crimes legislation gives one set of crime victims a higher level of protection than it gives to people like you and me. [emphasis added]

ALL people deserve to be protected from crime, not just certain groups.

Well, no, Ms. Tony. It doesn't give other people more protection than it gives people like you. People like you are already covered under the "thought crimes" legislation that's already on the books. You didn't bother telling your members that fact, did you. You also didn't tell your members that in the decades that your special rights have been law, no one has been prosecuted for thinking, for example, that you're a bit fey for a real homophobe. So what makes you think that by letting other people in on your special rights, somehow, suddenly, all legal hell will break loose?

I wonder why it is that Tony Perkins thinks he has to lie to his members in order to keep them hating gay people. Perhaps Tony is afraid that if his members knew the truth, they might like gay people just a little bit more, and him a little bit less.

The media needs to ask Tony Perkins and the rest of his religious right coven why they aren't calling for the repeal of the current hate crimes laws that already protect them, if they're so convinced that hate crimes laws are bad. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

For a respite from the news, check out the poem of the week, The Long Boat, by Stanely Kunitz, who was the poet lauereate of the United States back in 2000.

For a different take on the new, check out a haiku from KarenMrsLloydRichards, which pretty much summed up the week:

Tea-baggers dream of
1773:
Muskets, wenches, slaves . . .

Have at it... Read the rest of this post...

Buffalo Springfield

A very young Neil Young and a cheesy TV host of yesteryear. Do any "variety" shows still exist in the US these days? They're still popular enough here and every time I see one it's like stepping back in time though not in a good kind of way. Read the rest of this post...

G-20 death linked to internal bleeding - manslaughter charges possible

Another ugly development in a very ugly story. Again, newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson made the mistake of walking home during the G-20 event in London and passing by the London Metropolitan police. After trying one route and finding it blocked he made his way through another when he was struck and beaten by police. Thanks to a visiting New York fund manager who happened to film the episode and turn it over to The Guardian, what would have been swept under the rug and ignored is now a serious problem. The autopsy of Ian Tomlinson has shown the cause of death was internal bleeding and not the heart attack.

The second postmortem was conducted by Dr Nat Cary, who was able to scrutinise video evidence before conducting his examination. In a statement last night, City of London coroners court said Dr Cary had provisionally concluded that internal bleeding was the cause of Tomlinson's death. "Dr Cary's opinion is that the cause of death was abdominal haemorrhage. The cause of the haemorrhage remains to be ascertained.

"Dr Cary accepts that there is evidence of coronary atherosclerosis but states that in his opinion its nature and extent is unlikely to have contributed to the cause of death."

Jules Carey, the lawyer acting for Tomlinson's family, said: "The video footage of the unprovoked and vicious assault on Ian by the police officer would easily justify charges of assault being brought against the officer. The findings of Dr Nat Cary significantly increase the likelihood that the officer will now face the more serious charge of manslaughter."

The Metropolitan police need to shape up quickly and send a clear message that they can accept change. Read the rest of this post...

Unpopular and ineffective Sarkozy rips world leaders

Oh the irony. Unable to accomplish anything of significance despite big promises, Sarko is now criticizing other world leaders including Obama. Maybe this is how he thinks it will be possible to get his own approval above 40% or somehow help make him more popular. Heck, if it helps him accomplish something - anything at all - go for it. To say that he has been a disappointment to those who voted for him would be an understatement. For those who voted against him or abstained he's been even worse.

According to those present at the lunch, an intra-parliamentary group of 24 politicians working on the global financial crisis, the host's unusual political candour began with the US president, whose star status and media adulation he is understood to envy.

"He said that Obama had a subtle intelligence but that he was recently elected and had never run a state or an authority before," Jean-Pierre Brard, a Communist MP, told the Guardian. Another guest quoted Sarkozy in the Libération newspaper as saying: "There are numerous things on which he [Obama] hasn't got a position and ... he is not always up to scratch with decisions and efficiency."

Enjoying his chance to cast himself as the hero of the global fight against the downturn, Sarkozy ploughed on with some barbed comments about Merkel's leadership during the crisis.

There is a belief here that he's been at the forefront of the crisis despite campaigning and then starting his term promoting "the American model." It's a nice story and many believe it but it's difficult to see the facts that support this theory. Read the rest of this post...