NIH report rips Bush-FDA for 'secret science'

For people who say they love life so much they sure have a funny way of showing it. Why is the GOP always fighting against science and propping up business over people?

Experimental blood substitutes raised the risk of heart attack and death, yet U.S. regulators allowed human testing to continue despite warning signs, says a scathing new report.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration fell short, the report contends, even as red flags popped up during studies by five biotech companies. Rules barred the agency from releasing company trade secrets, and that kept some information hidden and may have led to unnecessary heart attacks and deaths, wrote the authors, who are government scientists and consumer advocates.

"There shouldn't be secret science," said the lead author of the report, Dr. Charles Natanson, of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Safety data need "to be made public expeditiously so science can build on the mistakes" of previous research, he said.

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The majority of the country agrees with us, so why does the right continue to set the agenda?

From Arianna:

It's a paradox: the political center has clearly shifted; what used to be considered "left wing" positions have now become part of the mainstream, and the views of the Right are now at odds with the majority of the American public -- and with reality.

Yet, despite this seismic shift -- grossly underreported by the media -- the Right remains as powerful as ever when it comes to setting the national agenda and dominating the national debate.

Think about it: on Iraq and the exercise of American power, on economic fairness, on corporate responsibility, on the environment and climate change, on the universal right to healthcare, the progressive policies and positions long championed by the left have moved from union halls and MoveOn emails to the sidewalks, backyards, and kitchen tables of Main Street, USA.

Nevertheless, the traditional media -- and most politicians -- continue to insist on looking at every issue through a right vs left frame, then assume the answer is found by splitting the difference....

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Florida Governor Charlie Crist is married?

I am pretty positive this is an accident (x2), but paging through Bloomberg's official White House Correspondents' Dinner afterparty pictures, I found this and this.

In both photos, Crist has his arm around an attractive brunette woman, and the captions read as follows (emphases mine):

Charlie Crist, governor of Florida, right, and his wife attend an afterparty hosted by Bloomberg LP following the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 26, 2008.

Charlie Crist, governor of Florida, and his wife arrive for an afterparty hosted by Bloomberg LP following the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 26, 2008.

I did a little digging around, and I don't think Crist is married. In fact, contrary to what the Florida press and Charlie's dad have reported, I thought there was a lot of speculation as to whether Governor Crist ever wanted to marry a woman...again. (He was married once before for about a year back in 1979).

However, if there is any truth to the speculation that he's a possible Republican VP candidate, then someone urging him to be seen with an attractive "wife" at this particular juncture wouldn't be entirely far-fetched. Read the rest of this post...

Cox reports "Noose allegedly found at Secret Service Training Center" and the Secret Service already has serious problems with racism

Okay, this is disturbing on any number of levels. The Secret Service protects the President, Presidential candidates and has officers all over D.C. protecting embassies. If this is real, we have got some serious problems at the Secret Service:

The U.S. Secret Service has placed a white agent on leave after an African American employee reported finding a noose hanging at the service’s main training facility outside the nation’s capital.

The service has acknowledged “an allegation of misconduct” at its J.J. Rowley Training Center in Beltsville, Md., and that an employee last week was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. The employee is a veteran agent with the service, according to fellow agents.

The noose was found by an African American officer in the uniform division of the service during the week of April 14, according to those familiar with the alleged incident. That division protects the White House and surrounding grounds. He reported the incident to his supervisor and it was sent up the chain of command. He declined to comment for this story.

This doesn't exactly inspire confidence:

The alleged incident happened as U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson is expected to decide next month whether to sanction the service for failing to turn over evidence in a long-running lawsuit alleging that the service created a racially hostile atmosphere that tolerated discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Atlanta native Reginald G. Moore, alleges that the Secret Service routinely discriminates against black agents seeking promotion in favor of white agents who scored lower on promotional exams.

Nearly 60 black agents have submitted sworn statements to the court in support of the lawsuit’s allegations.

Robinson has already sanctioned the service three times since the discovery process of the lawsuit began 3 1/2 years ago.

We're supposed to believe the Secret Service is the best of the best when it comes to law enforcement. Instead, it sounds like it's rampant with racism. Oh, but racism doesn't exist in America or we'd surely see it in the exit polls. Read the rest of this post...

Four more soldiers killed in Iraq. April's been a deadly month for the U.S.

Just in case anyone in the punditry is interested (and can break away from the trifling issues over which they're obsessing), there is a war raging in Iraq. And, it is raging:

Bombardments by suspected militants killed four U.S. soldiers Monday as troops tried to push Shiite fighters farther from the U.S.-protected Green Zone and out of range of their rockets and mortars.

At least 44 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces since September.

We shouldn't have had five years of this disaster in Iraq. But, we really can't take 100 years of this. Read the rest of this post...

Now Hillary is embracing John McCain's tax-cut plan

Good grief. How are you people going to run against McCain, should you steal the election, when all you do is praise him? Any chance you could take a moment away from trying to destroy Obama and destroy McCain, just a little bit? But supporting tax cuts at a time of massive deficits? Come on. What's next, embracing guns? Oh. Yeah. I forgot.

Oh, also, Markos pointed out Hillary's "shameless hypocrisy" on this very issue. She used to think a GOP plan to play politics with the gas tax was a bad idea. Read the rest of this post...

Warren Buffet warns of long and deep recession

Many have been predicting the worst recession in decades and now Warren Buffet, the world's richest person, is moving to this camp.

"This is not a field of specialty for me, but my general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think," Buffett said. "This will not be short and shallow.

"I think consumers are feeling gas and food prices," he added, "and not feeling they've got a lot of money for other things."

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Did Huckabee have a woman fired because she was holding a Hillary sign?

Wayne Besen says yes. Read the rest of this post...

Republicans know how to run the economy

No, not the Wall Street collapse and bailout or the skyrocketing price of oil since the Iraq invasion. Not talking about the increasing inflation that is crushing normal Americans. Nope, not talking about the sub-prime bubble bursting nor the failures of post-Katrina reconstruction. And no, this isn't about the budget surplus disappearing into a massive deficit either. Oh and no, this isn't about the corporate welfare called "no price negotiations with Big Pharma despite preaching about the free market" with the Medicare money. This is just another example of failed oversight in the black hole of spending called Iraq.

Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.

The audit released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, provides the latest snapshot of an uneven reconstruction effort that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion. It also comes as several lawmakers have said they want the Iraqis to pick up more of the cost of reconstruction.

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TIME's blog: "John McCain is probably the favorite candidate of Osama bin Laden, just as George W. Bush was Osama's presidential preference."

Touche. And he's right. Bin Laden wanted the US to invade Afghanistan and get bogged down in an endless war. In fact, we gave him two. Here's what Joe Klein had to say on TIME's blog:

I was thinking about posting yesterday about McCain's cheesy nonsense about Obama being endorsed by Hamas. If McCain wants to go that route, I can suggest another: that John McCain is probably the favorite candidate of Osama bin Laden, just as George W. Bush was Osama's presidential preference....

The war in Iraq has been a grand strategic gift to Osama, keeping the U.S. military tied down elsewhere and off his tail.

Ron Suskind had a relevant scene in his excellent book The One Percent Doctrine: It's the Friday before election day in 2004 and Osama bin Laden has issued a videotape in which he lambastes President Bush. The top dawgs at the CIA are gathered to analyze the tape. Dep. Director John McLaughlin says, "I wonder who Osama is voting for?" Everyone cracks up because the answer is so obvious.

I remember studying Latin American terrorism/revolutionaries in the 1980s (Shining Path in Peru, FARC in Colombia). What the terrorists wanted were hard-nosed right-wing governments that would clamp down on civil liberties as a response to terrorist attacks, thus ticking off the people, causing more social tensions, and pushing the country ever close to exploding internally. Terrorists thrive on conservative governments. And if John McCain wants to play the terror card, let's play it. Because he wins. Read the rest of this post...

John McCain did "all he can do" but still can't stop NC GOP Chair Linda Davies from running its racist ad

I found this passage very curious and a real demonstration of weakness on the part of the GOP's leader, John McCain:

On whether he has the ability to stop the NC GOP from running an ad with clips of Wright, McCain once again said that he had done all he can do, although he did admit that he has not personally tried to contact the state party and he does not plan on punishing the party if they go through with plans to place the ad on TV.

So, he's doing all that he can do, but Linda Davies is still overpowering and out-maneuvering McCain. If McCain can't muscle Linda Davies, how can he show any strength? Seems like McCain is actually either a pushover -- or maybe he's intimidated by this woman:
Read the rest of this post...

George Bush's laissez-faire dollar policy is why you're paying so much for gas

Don't think the dollar's decline affects you since you don't go to Europe? Think Again. Chris posted earlier today about OPEC and the price of oil, and buried in his post was a fascinating quote from the head of OPEC:

"[E]ach time the dollar falls one percent, the price of the barrel rises by $4, and of course vice versa"

The dollar has fallen 30% versus the Euroe since April 2003. That would mean a $120 rise in the per barrel price of oil. Now, oil is at $120/barrel, and oil was around $30/barrel in 2003, so the formula isn't perfect. But that means the real increase was $90 versus the predicted $120. That's pretty darn close. The overall point is that the head of OPEC just said that George Bush and the Republicans' economic policy vis-a-vis destroying the dollar (they don't care if the value plummets because "it's the market's doing") has led to the majority of the oil price increase. I.e., you're paying more at the pump because of George Bush and the Republicans. Read the rest of this post...

Michigan and Florida chose to the break the rules, and knew what would happen if they did

What's been missing from this discussion of Florida's and Michigan's delegates is an acknowledgment that Florida and Michigan were told what would happen if they broke the rules - they'd lose their delegates - they told the DNC "screw you," and broke the rules anyway, so they lost their delegates. Now, with Hillary's help, they're acting like "gee, how did that happen?" Uh, it happened because your state officials (the Republican legislature, in the case of Florida) chose to break the rules knowing full well that the price would be losing your delegates. Got a gripe about having lost your voice at the Democratic convention? Have a little chat with your state officials. But please, let's stop this little charade of pretending like losing your delegates was a big surprise. Hillary's own top advisers helped put the delegate plan into place. Everyone knew what would happen, but they did it anyway. Read the rest of this post...

Bill Kristol hearts Hillary

Now, you know you can trust the motives of leading neocon William Kristol. His column in today's NY Times is a paean to his new political idol, Hillary Clinton. It's a recitation of Clinton campaign talking points.

Surely, Bill Kristol would never mislead the American people. When Kristol and Richard Mellon Scaife jump on the Hillary bandwagon, they can only be thinking about best interests of the Democratic party. Read the rest of this post...

OPEC president responds to $200 oil question

It's not very comforting that $200 per barrel is even being discussed but unfortunately, the OPEC president isn't the only person kicking this idea around.

He added: "The prices are high due to the fact of the recession in the United States and the economic crisis which has touched several countries, a situation which has an effect on the devaluation of the dollar, and therefore each time the dollar falls one percent, the price of the barrel rises by $4, and of course vice versa," he was quoted as saying in brief remarks to journalists on Sunday.

He added that: "If this (the dollar) strengthens by 10 percent, it is probable that (oil) prices will fall by 40 percent."

If the U.S. economic situation improved from now to the end of the year "that would help the market to stabilize."

Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Cindy McCain has a private jet. That's interesting enough. But, John McCain used his wife's private jet to campaign around the country. And, she gave him a sweetheart deal -- but the McCain campaign says her money doesn't help his campaign. They're lying. Cindy McCain has been footing the bill for her husband's political career from the very beginning -- right after McCain dumped his first wife to marry Cindy. She needs to release her tax returns.

Seriously, how many scams does McCain have to pull before he loses his sainthood?

Start threading the news, please. Read the rest of this post...

Pro-Beijing protesters turn violent in South Korea

Another proud moment in modern Olympic history. The pro-screw-human-rights protesters refuse to give in to anyone who dares question the heavy use of violence by the Beijing government. These protesters really need to look back at the American footage of the Freedom Fries campaign so they can take this to the next level. Just as Republicans told the lapdog media about the cozy conditions on a Caribbean island (Gitmo) with great meals, if the pro-Beijing supports want people to really buy their story - and they will, just as Americans did with Iraq - it's high time they explain how much better the Tibetan people are under Beijing rule.

After all, this is the new China where ancient cultures are meant to go away so people can worship at the alter of hyper-capitalism and feed the party. So a few million people are left behind, sheesh, what do they want? No matter what you do there will always be a few complainers, right? Just give them a solid beating and keep the Olympic flame moving. Human rights are sooooo overrated. Read the rest of this post...

Another day, another cash dash by a large bank

While it may seem odd that so many banks are scrambling around the world for cash, I can somewhat live with it. Raising capital from foreign governments that will now have a role in a major bank is unsettling if you think this out into the future, but it could be worse. What is much more problematic is that these banks continue to be fed by taxpayers in the US and UK (and no doubt elsewhere) to prevent them from having to raise even more capital.

The banks have no issue with raising more capital to pay for their problems so why are taxpayers - who are already suffering due to banking problems - bailing out banks? It's obvious they get much better terms from taxpayers during this process but what taxpayer wouldn't want to see some friendly terms given back in their direction? To hell with the gamblers in the banking industry, but politicians on both sides of the pond are much too proper to say what everyone in the real world is already thinking. Maybe the voters will just say to hell with the politicians who are going along with this and vote them out. Read the rest of this post...