The Big Pharma boondoggle - windfall profits from Medicare

This has been a strange implementation of socialized medicine that the GOP rolled out and it's even more bizarre how they've fought against the cost controls of socialized systems. The Medicare program that the Republicans created has turned out to be very profitable for Big Pharma thanks to the shocking disregard for basic price negotiations. I've never understood the Bush-GOP arguments against negotiating prices since they know the US pays more than other rich countries for pharmaceuticals. Anyone in business knows that when you have a large buyer, they demand quantity pricing. That's how it works except here, where the Republicans are happy to help Big Pharma make enormous profits from Medicare.

U.S. pharmaceutical companies benefited from a $3.7 billion "windfall" during the first two years of Medicare's prescription drug coverage, according to a report from Democratic congressional staff released on Thursday.

The report from Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee focused on "dual eligibles," or patients who qualify for prescription drug coverage from both Medicaid, which covers the poor, and Medicare, the health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled.

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IMF: US house prices still overvalued by 8-20%

And the misery continues for Bush's ownership society.

The downward spiral of U.S. housing prices still has a way to go and homes were overvalued by between 8 percent to 20 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to research by an International Monetary Fund economist published on Friday.

In his report "What goes up must come down? House price dynamics in the United States," IMF economist Vladimir Klyuev used several economic techniques to determine by how much U.S. home prices are overvalued.

Klyuev drew from a government study of single-family home prices to conclude that values were "around 14 percent above equilibrium in the first quarter of 2008, with a plausible range of 8 to 20 percent."

His research showed that home prices became considerably overvalued from 2001 and while the housing market has started to correct itself, there is still a long way to go.

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McCain launches negative ad based on lie: The new Karl Rove version of John McCain is now on full display

McCain has a new, nasty attack ad running against Obama. It's based on pure falsehoods and a fake GOP created controversy -- and the sick thing is that McCain is now using wounded U.S. soldiers as political fodder. No surprise really -- except for McCain's media toadies who still think he's a stand-up guy. McCain has the Bush/Rove crew on board and this is standard procedure for them. McCain has got nothing to offer the American people so McCain is setting out to destroy Obama's reputation. He can't win -- he can only make Obama lose.

The Obama campaign sent out this response:

“John McCain is an honorable man who is running an increasingly dishonorable campaign. Senator McCain knows full well that Senator Obama strongly supports and honors our troops, which is what makes this attack so disingenuous. Senator Obama was honored to meet with our men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan this week and has visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed numerous times. This politicization of our soldiers is exactly what Senator Obama sought to avoid, and it's not worthy of Senator McCain or the 'civil' campaign he claimed he would run,” said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Just today, the Washington Post, which cuts McCain every break possible, trashed McCain over his latest line of attack against Obama's patriotism:

This is not the "politics of civility" that Mr. McCain was promising as recently as last month.

"What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day," Mr. McCain wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama proposing weekly town hall meetings. With these latest comments, Mr. McCain falls short of the standards he set out.

This isn't the McCain they thought they knew. This is Karl Rove's John McCain. Wonder what David Broder (and all the Broder wannabes like Cillizza) thinks of this?

And, team Obama needs to hit back hard -- really hard. Obama has repeatedly said he won't let the campaign get distracted. His words "Not this time" have reinforced that message. Now is the time to prove it.

We've been saying the GOP was going to get nastier and uglier than anything we've ever seen. It's starting. Read the rest of this post...

McCain just attacked Obama's age. Dumb dumb dumb.

Wow that was dumb. McCain put out a press release today criticizing Obama for not politicizing our wounded troops. Seriously. McCain is upset that Obama did NOT want to appear to be using our wounded troops for a photo op, so after the Pentagon raised the concern that Obama's planned visit to wounded vets in Europe might appear as just that, Obama canceled the trip. McCain, who never misses a chance to imply that Obama is un-American and hates the troops, now went a step further. He had his campaign call Obama "a young man" in a press release, clearly implying that Obama is too young to be president. Which is ironic, considering that McCain isn't just 72 years old this summer - he's an old 72. McCain is not your father. He's your grandfather. And while we all love and loved our grandfathers, we don't necessarily think they're up to being the leader of the free world because, quite simply, 72 year olds don't have the energy and stamina, and often the mental acuity, of 46 year olds. So it's rather odd, and I would argue dangerous, for McCain to now say that age is a legitimate issue in this race when he's beyond the age of most presidential candidates and Obama is smack in the middle. Not to mention, with the growing number of times of late that McCain has confused key facts regarding his signature issue, national security, you'd think McCain would be the last person to argue that age is a relevant factor in this race. But today he just did. Read the rest of this post...

CA changes wording of state constitutional amendment revoking marriages of gay couples

Sucks to be a knuckle-dragger these days. Seems the state changed the wording of the description of the amendment so that now people know what it really does. It doesn't define marriage as between a man and a woman, it repeals the marriages of thousands of couples. If the fundy-right is so hell-bent on destroying gay people's lives, they could at least have the cojones to admit what they want to do and then let the people vote. Read the rest of this post...

Wisconsins Dems boot Clinton delegate who said she'll vote for McCain

Now she's saying that she'd consider voting for Obama over McCain, if he wins her over at the convention. Buh bye. Read the rest of this post...

California bans trans-fats

This changes everything. Thanks to the corporate food industry consolidating food production with a one size fits all model, they will have little chance of ignoring this ban. They can, but that means special products for California. Either that or they can ignore a market of 36 million people.

California has become the first US state to ban restaurants and food retailers from using trans-fats, which are linked to coronary heart disease.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the new legislation, which will take effect in 2010, represented a "strong step toward creating a healthier future".

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Exposing the blatant bias -- and unprofessional journalism -- of ABC's Gibson and Stephanopoulos again

Jed slices and dices ABC's latest report on the presidential race. Watch the video and you'll see, it's pretty appalling:

After tonight’s broadcast of ABC News with Charlie Gibson, ABC might as well openly declare its support for John McCain.

Hours after first watching it, I’m still stunned at just how blatant its bias was. About the only good thing I can say about it is that at this point Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos are so confident that they won’t be held accountable that they are getting arrogant and sloppy. As a result, tonight they made some glaring mistakes that make it easy to prove their bias towards McCain.

Jed obliterates the piece. Read his five-point deconstruction. What's amazing to me is that Jed, a one-person operation, can do that analysis so quickly from his home base in Las Vegas. Yet, ABC News with all its alleged talent and pool of producers and researchers somehow managed to air a very biased report -- despite all the competing info. available.

That leads to only one conclusion: There is a deliberate effort at ABC to help McCain.

John McCain whined last week that the media was being too nice to Obama. Gibson and Stephanopoulos dutifully got back on the McCain bus last night.

And, what a coincidence, George is having him on "This Week" tomorrow. Don't forget the donuts, George. He likes Dunkin Donuts with sprinkles, but George probably knows that. Read the rest of this post...

Bush/Rumsfeld political hack, Bryan Whitman, behind the latest GOP attack on Obama. Whitman's done that before for the GOP.

Last February, Barack Obama told an anecdote of a soldier who was shipped to Afghanistan:

You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon -- supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.

And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief. Now, that's a consequence of bad judgment.

The story was true, but many in the traditional media immediately jumped all over that story because John McCain -- and a GOP press hack at the Pentagon said it wasn't true:

NBC, also spoke to the soldier, but gave the McCain campaign the headline it wanted "Pentagon questions Obama’s soldier story." NBC quoted Bush appointee/Pentagon flack Bryan Whitman:

"I find that account pretty hard to imagine," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

"Despite the stress that we readily acknowledge on the force, one of the things that we do is make sure that all of our units and service members that are going into harm's way are properly trained, equipped and with the leadership to be successful," he said.

Okay, that is so not true. But what else would you expect. Whitman's been flacking at the Pentagon since the Rumsfeld days. Think of all the misinformation and lies he spewed at us.

Whitman not only engaged in partisan politics, he basically lied about the situation in Afghanistan to NBC. Obama's version was accurate. Whitman's wasn't.

Fast forward to July of 2008: Which Pentagon political hack is right smack in the middle of the latest manufactured controversy about Obama's visit to the troops in Germany -- a political controversy being pushed by "The Pentagon"? That's right. Bryan Whitman. Yes, apparently when the press talks about "The Pentagon" they mean Bryan Whitman -- and Whitman was quite happy to stir the pot on this one:

The Pentagon said on Friday that it did not prevent an Obama visit.

"Nobody denied Senator Obama the opportunity to visit our wounded being cared for at Landstuhl. Obviously, as a sitting senator, he has an interest in that and can certainly visit in an official capacity," said Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, who added that there are "restrictions on what you can do as a candidate for political office, that stems from trying to maintain political neutrality and not have the military involved in politics."

"The senator's staff was informed of the limits on what the military can do with respect to a political campaign and how we could support a senator's visit to Landstuhl and, quite frankly, I expected them to have the visit," Whitman said.

Quite frankly, no one should believe anything Bryan Whitman says on behalf of "The Pentagon." He's a GOP political operative who has done a lot of Bush, Cheney and Rummy's dirty work from his press perch at the Pentagon for years. The guy has no compunction about engaging in politics. And, he's the one pushing this latest fake controversy. In February, Obama was right. Whitman was wrong. Same now.

It must be so easy to work in the Bush administration. Facts don't matter and anything can be said to further the GOP agenda. But, after eight years of this, you'd think a reporter like Dan Balz at the Washington Post would see the political motives behind Bryan Whitman's spin. But, that is clearly asking too much.

NOTE FROM JOHN: And it's get better. Check out McCain's latest attempt to get noticed:

The campaign of Obama's GOP rival, Sen. John McCain, was quick to criticize the decision. "Barack Obama is wrong," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said. "It is never 'inappropriate' to visit our men and women in the military."

First off, no - it's NEVER appropriate to visit our men and women in the military if they're injured and you're just doing it as a political stunt in order to use them as props. McCain is flat out wrong about this. Obama didn't go in order not to appear to be using our men and women as props. He should be lauded for this - obviously McCain thinks it's okay to use them as props. Second, it was the Pentagon guy himself who said that there are limits on such visits - so is McCain saying the Pentagon is wrong, that there should never be such limits? Sure is. Maybe McCain is simply confused. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning everyone.

Check out the poem of the week, Home is so Sad by Philip Larkin. We're told "It's quiet, clever and intense." And, it is. This is another poem of few words, but much intensity. Writing on the blog has taught me the value of using fewer words to make the point. It's hard and takes true talent to do it well. The poet Philip Larkin does it. In the world of blogs, the master of that skill is Atrios.

Anyway, that's our little break from the rough and tumble world of politics. Thread away. Read the rest of this post...

Rice warns China on Olympic security

Careful now. China might get angry and we wouldn't want that.

Beijing officials maintain the Olympics are threatened by terrorists and other extremists and some fear Chinese authorities could use that as an excuse to move against political opponents. Rice and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said any such action could mar the Games.

"Security threats have to be dealt with and that is fully understood by everybody, but security should not become in any way a cover to try and deal with dissent," said Rice who will head the U.S. delegation to the Olympic closing ceremonies. "That would be unfortunate."

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Banks borrowing more money from Fed

Great. The free-market phonies strike again. The only thing "free" is "free money" at about half the rate of inflation for everyone else. Remember, when the tables are turned these organizations would not and do not lift a finger to help so why are we giving them such an easy free ride? Just because the Phil Gramm's of the world are paid handsomely to negotiate such handouts, it doesn't mean it's in our best interest.

Banks stepped up their borrowing over the past week from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program, while Wall Street firms didn't draw such loans.

A Fed report released Thursday said commercial banks averaged $16.4 billion in daily borrowing over the past week.

That was up from $13.9 billion in the previous week.

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